By Maria Isabel Gallego
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Arthur Tugade said on Friday, Aug. 13, that the Metro Manila Subway was real and not a “drawing” as the start of the making of the Metro Manila Subway line has begun after 50 years of planning.
“Now, after 50 years, the most dreamed-up, first-ever subway in the Philippines was gradually being accomplished,” Tugade wrote in Tagalog in his Facebook post.
The subway project concept, which was developed in 1973, did not have any feasibility study, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board approval, contracts as well as financing up until when the DOTr came in July 2016, according to the Transportation secretary.
However, with the support of the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the 33.103-kilometer subway project was funded with 104.53 billion yen (P115.76 billion) last 2018 and another 253.3 billion yen (P115.76 billion) last July 27.
The second tranche of funding will be used for the expansion of the initial planning line—spur line and rail tracks in NAIA which will also be used by the North-South Commuter Train. This will add two more train stations and will reach 17 stations in total.
“The Metro Manila Subway Project already has an approved investment and funding, with its partial operability section civil works and trains contracted out. The actual construction began in 2019 with site-clearing works at the Valenzuela Depot,” Tugade said.
He added that earlier this year, two tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) measuring 7 meters in diameter and weighing 700 tons each, arrived in the country to start the underground works this 2021.
The Metro Manila Subway is a project under the current administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program which aims to help ease the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila and to boost economic growth in the country by connecting major business centers in the capital region.
When finished, it will connect the Valenzuela Depot to NAIA terminal 3 in Pasay City and to Food Terminal Corporate (FTI) in Taguig City which helps reduce travel time from Valenzuela Depot to NAIA terminal 3 from the usual one hour and 30 minutes to just 30 to 45 minutes.
