The Transportation Department said it will pursue the construction of a P374-billion subway to connect business districts and decongest Metro Manila traffic.
“Definitely, we will pursue the subway project connecting the business districts. There’s an existing feasibility study,” Transportation Undersecretary for rail and toll roads Noel Kintanar told reporters after the ANC Forum Tuesday night.
The P374-billion Makati-Pasay-Taguig Mass Transport System Loop was not approved by the previous board of the National Economic and Development Authority because of the complexity of the project.
The project involves the connection of Bonifacio Global City, Makati central business district and the Mall of Asia area in Pasay City. The proposed new rail line would run for about 12 kilometers underground.
Kintanar said the Duterte administration would pursue the subway project because of the demand and need to resolve the traffic congestion along Edsa.
Traffic along Edsa and other major roads in Metro Manila slowed down in recent months, as vehicles sales surged while no major infrastructure projects were completed in the capital region.
Data from Metropolitan Manila Development Authority showed some 7,000 vehicles were plying Edsa an hour.
Kintanar also said the agency was reviewing other rail projects under the public-private-partnership program, including the Light Rail Transit Line 2 operations and maintenance project, the P65.09-LRT Line 6 project and the P171-billion PNR railway project.
“We are looking back because we are 45 days on the job. All of them have to be better understood that when we do the tender, we do it right. If you want the private sector involved, it has to be bankable and financially viable project for the investors,” Kintanar said.
“It’s under review in the sense that we are revisiting all the assumption and making sure that the contract will work. We are all rushing them, we are all on full speed ahead,” he said.
Kintanar said for LRT Line 2, the Transportation Department was looking at expanding it to Pier 4 in Manila from Recto station.
“The other thing that we are looking at is rehabilitation of the existing MRT Line 3 because the demand in Edsa is so great and in LRT Line 2, we want to [bring them] back to fighting form. As I mentioned 40 percent of the trains are none operational,” he said.
Kintanar said the government planned to build five to six railway projects within six years.
These include LRT Line 6, LRT Line 1 Cavite extension project, MRT Line 7, the PNR modernization project and the subway system project.
