TWELVE more trains or 48 cars from China are set to arrive in January next year to boost the Metro Rail Transit, but the commuters could not yet use them because of the lack of power supply, an official said Wednesday.
Transport Undersecretary Noel Kintanar said the extra power supply for the new trains would be there only during the second or third quarter next year after a bidder won the bidding to supply it.
He made the statement during the fourth and last hearing of the Senate committee on public services on the bill that seeks to grant emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic crisis.
“We are still receiving bids before accepting and evaluating,” Kintanar said when Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto pressed him when the riding public could benefit from the trains bought from Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company.
Kintanar said the MRT had 20 sets of trains with three coaches, and though they wanted to add another coach the existing power supply could not handle it.
Committee head Grace Poe asked Kintanar about the status of the trains brought from the Chinese company in 2014, and Kintanar said they could start using the new trains as soon as they had the extra power supply.
Recto questioned the transport officials over their “unfocused and unfunded” proposed projects amounting to P1.3 trillion to attend to the traffic crisis.
“What you want are emergency powers for the entire country,” Recto said.
Transport Undersecretary Raul Creencia said the emergency powers would equip them with better tools to decongest traffic not only in Metro Manila, but also in the other urban areas like Cebu and Davao.
But Recto told them they might lose focus if interfered with the traffic conditions in the whole country.
“The biggest problem is in Metro Manila, maybe Cebu and Davao. Why not focus on the three?” Recto said.
He also criticized the Transport officials for their plan to be the traffic crisis manager for the whole Philippines.
He urged them to focus on Metro Manila because almost half of the nine million vehicles nationwide were in the national capital region.
Poe criticized the Transport Department’s failure to ease the traffic gridlock.
“Perhaps the [department] should focus on projects that will immediately solve the traffic,” she said.