The Chinese company which manufactured the 48 trains for the Metro Rail Transit-3, said that it is confident that these trains will pass the audit test that independent auditing firm TUV Rheinland is conducting, CRRC Dalian general manager for overseas business Li Depu told reporters in an interview in the MRT-3 Depot on Thursday evening. The Department of Transportation contracted TUV Rheinland to audit the trains which were purchased for P3.8 billion under the Aquino administration. “This is according to the request from DoTr. Such kind of test has been completed in China before but DoTr insists that we re-do it here in the Philippines,” Li said. The DoTr previously said that the trains were overweight at 49.7 tons; the specificied weight is only 46.4 tons. “There are 83 boxes to be checked for us to answer that question (if the trains can be used or not). TUV Rheinland is working on the consolidation process. We expect their report to be submitted very soon, if not next week, the week after that,” Transportation Undersecretary for Rails Timothy John Batan said. A weight testing was conducted in the MRT-3 depot, loading each train car with 1,464 sand bags which weighed 17.5 kilograms each. This is equivalent to an estimate of 394 people. DoTr said, the maximum allowable weight per axle is 19 tons. “This weighing test today is part of the broader acceptance process,” Batan said, noting that the question whether the trains are overweight or not could still not be answered. “We want to wait for our auditor’s report on that before we give a definite answer,” he said.
