Light Rail Manila Corp., a consortium led by Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said Monday it expects to start the construction of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite extension project by early March.
“As committed, we are ready to ground break by late February or early March,” LRMC president and chief executive Rogelio Singson told reporters.
Singson said the company expected to complete the construction of the project by 2020 or 2021.
LRMC earlier won the P65-billion LRT Line 1 extension project, with a premium bid of P9.35 billion in September 2014.
LRMC is a responsible for the construction of the 11.7-kilometer extension from the present end point in Baclaran to Niog area in Bacoor, Cavite.
It will consist of elevated guideways throughout most of the alignment, except for the guideway section at Zapote which will be located at grade. It will consist of the satellite depot and new station.
The extended rail line is expected to help increase the capacity of LRT 1 from 500,000 to 800,000 passengers daily and benefit more than four million residents in Cavite and the southern part of Metro Manila.
Singson said LRMC was also working on the rehabilitation of LRT 1 stations at United Nations, Gil Puyat, Abad Santos, Pedro Gil and R. Papa. The company completed the rehabilitation of Doroteo Station, which is part the P500-million station improvement project.
“By end 2017, LRMC will deliver a wholly refurbished train line, featuring stations that have been renovated and equipped with structural upgrades and new facilities to enhance passenger experience,” Singson said.
LRMC said as of end-December 2016, it was able to deploy up to 100 light rail vehicles or 30 trains per day. This was up from only 77 in September 2015, when the company assumed operation and maintenance of the train line.
It said with more LRVs serving a daily average of 420,000 passengers and through the implementation of effective management strategies, the time for a train to complete a loop improved from 118 minutes to 108 minutes.