The Department of Transportation on Friday broke ground for the construction of two underground subway stations at Quezon Ave. Station and East Ave. Station in Quezon City.
“The subway will not only provide comfort and convenience, but also generate jobs. It will definitely be comfortable, affordable, safe, sustainable and accessible,” Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.
“The whole subway will connect with different railway networks such as LRT 1, MRT 3, MRT 7 and the Grand Common station. It will also connect with LRT 2 at Anonas Station,” he said.
Bautista said he expects the Metro Manila Subway Project to be operational by 2028.
The 33-kilometer subway, dubbed as the “project of the century”, stretches from Valenzuela in the north to NAIA Terminal 3 and FTI in the south.
Once completed, it is expected to reduce travel time between Quezon City and NAIA from one hour and 30 minutes to just 35 minutes. It will also serve around 370,000 passengers a day in its first year of full operations, with capacity to serve up to 1 million passengers a day in later years.
The MMSP is physically interconnected and interoperable with the North-South Commuter Railway System’s south segment, enabling a passenger to board a subway train, for example, in North Ave. Station of MMSP and get off at the Calamba Station of NSCR.
The DOTr earlier signed two contract packages worth more than P52.2 billion for NSCR system.
The two contract packages of the NSC were awarded to winning bidders Acciona-DMCI joint venture and Leighton-First Balfour JV, which are both part of the South Commuter Railway Project.
“Once completed, the NSCR will offer safe, affordable, convenient and accessible transport to Filipinos, while accelerating our country’s economic rebound,” Bautista said in his speech.
The first package of the SCRP consists of the construction of a 7.9-km. elevated railway from Blumentritt to San Andres Bukid in Manila with three stations in España, Sta. Mesa and Paco that comprise a segment of the project that stretches up to Calamba.
The second package includes the construction of another 6.1-km. railway to run alongside a portion of the South Luzon Expressway.
Under the second package, a 4.7-km underground railway and 1.4-km ground level railway with station at the Food Terminal Inc. will be constructed as part of its segments.
Co-financed by the Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency, the 147-km NSCR is designed to reduce travel time from Clark Airport to Calamba in Laguna to two hours from 4 to 4.5 hours. With a total of 35 stations, the NSCR can service 800,000 passengers daily. The project is also estimated to generate around 110,000 direct and indirect jobs during its construction.
