The Department of Transportation said Monday it expects to complete 163 transport infrastructure projects worth P88.75 billion this year.
“In so far as our targeted completed projects, meaning full completion or partial operability in 2021, we are targeting 163 projects with a total project cost of P88.75 billion,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in a virtual briefing after the Pre-State of the Nation Address Economic Development and Infrastructure Clusters Forum.
He said of the total, the agency allocated P15.3 billion for aviation projects, P7 billion for maritime projects, P34.43 billion for railways projects and P30 billion for road projects.
“These are aggregate total cost of all projects we intent to complete by 2021 either full completion of partial operability,” he said.
Tugade also said that two big ticket railway projects would finally start operations this year. He said the LRT Line 2 East Extension Project would be formally inaugurated in June. LRT-2’s new stations, the Marikina Station and Antipolo Station, will serve commuters from Recto, Manila to Masinag, Antipolo, and back.
The project is expected to cut travel time between Manila and Antipolo from the three hours by bus or jeepney, to only 40 minutes. Once fully operational, the East Extension line will increase LRT-2’s capacity by 80,000 passengers a day.
Tugade added said the Common Station Project, which was delayed for nine years, would be operational by the fourth quarter.
The P2.8-billion project features a 13,700-square-meter concourse area which will seamlessly interconnect the rail lines of LRT-1, MRT-3, MRT-7 and the Metro Manila Subway.
The DOTr earlier said it would spend more than P700 billion this year until 2025 to build more mass railway projects in Luzon and Mindanao.
The agency programmed P90.75 billion in capital expenditure for 11 railways projects this year, P278.27 billion in 2022, P222.74 billion in 2023, P104.10 billion in 2024 and P45.47 billion in 2025.
These 11 railway projects are the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project, LRT2 East Extension, LRT2 West Extension, MRT 3 Rehabilitation, MRT4 Project, Metro Manila Subway, Common Station, North-South Commuter Railway, Subic-Clark Railway, PNR South Long Haul Project and the Mindanao Railway Project.