The Transportation Department expects to resolve this month the dispute between SM Group and Ayala Corp. over the controversial location of a common station that will link the overhead mass rail systems in Quezon City.
“I talked to them. They have come to an agreement, maybe before the end of this month we will sign a memorandum of agreement. They all agreed,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade told reporters Friday.
Tugade said the common station would be built between SM North and Trinoma mall.
“It would be in the middle so that the passengers will no longer be inconvenienced, I will approve and I will put my conformity to the agreement,” he said.
San Miguel Corp., the proponent of MRT 7 preferred SM North as the location of the common station under a 25-year concession agreement with the government.
SM Prime earlier secured a Supreme Court stay order, barring the department from transferring the location of the common station to Trinoma mall of Ayala Land Inc.
The Transportation Department decided to relocate the common station to Trinoma from SM North, saying the government could save P1 billion from the transfer.
To resolve the conflict with the SM Group, the Transportation Department proposed building two common stations, one near SM North Edsa and the other beside Trinoma Mall.
Under an earlier agreement between SM Prime and state-run Light Rail Transit Authority, the common station would be situated beside SM North Edsa. SM Prime already paid the government P200 million for the naming rights for the proposed station.
MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the best solution to resolve the issue on common station was to build it somewhere between SM North Edsa and Trinoma.
Pangilinan said the two common stations for MRT Line 3, LRT Line 1 and the proposed MRT Line 7 would be inefficient.
LRMC earlier proposed to Transportation the construction of an interim station between SM City North Edsa and Trinoma to connect the existing LRT1, MRT3 and the planned MRT7.
“The idea is to have just one station that will be ideal for us and for everyone because all the lines will just meet in that station. It has to be within that triangle of Trinoma and SM,” MPIC president and chief executive Jose Ma. Lim said.
Lim said if the proposed interim station concept became acceptable, it could later become a part of the permanent station.