Japanese Engineers Kick Off System Audit on MRT-3

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More than 50 railway engineers and experts from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will kick-off today the due diligence and system audit of the MRT-3.

 

The system audit is a necessary step to determine all the rehabilitation and restoration works needed on the MRT-3 system, which will be done by a JICA-nominated rehabilitation and maintenance provider that will be mobilized in May.

 

A Japanese company designed and built the MRT-3 system from 1998 to 2000, and maintained it from 2000 to 2012.

 

“We obviously need all the help we can get and we are very grateful that the Japanese Government answered our call for assistance to rehabilitate and restore the MRT-3 system.,” said OIC Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan.

 

The system audit that will commence today by JICA is separate from the ongoing Independent Audit and Assessment (IAA) by TUV Rheinland, an ISO 17020 and ISO 17065 certified and IFIA member certifier (International Federation of Inspection Agencies) for the entire MRT-3 system, including the 48 train cars from CRRC Dalian. The TUV Rheinland IAA commenced last Jan. 3 and has a 3 months duration.

Batan added that additional trains on the MRT-3 may be expected within February since the first batch of spare parts that were ordered last December are scheduled to be delivered and installed this month. The spare parts that were already ordered have a delivery lead time of 30 days to 6 months.

 

“We created a Special Bids and Awards Committee for MRT-3 to address the urgent need to restore its service, which require the expedited procurement of spare parts, among others,” added Batan.

 

The DOTr is currently implementing a four-point strategy to rehabilitate and restore the MRT-3 system. This involves (1) promoting accountability (termination of BURI); (2) ensuring continued service delivery (establishment of the Maintenance Transition Team); (3) contracting a qualified maintenance and rehabilitation service provider (together with the Japanese government); and (4) putting in place a long-term, single-point-of-responsibility, operator and maintenance provider for MRT-3 (O&M Unsolicited Proposal).

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