The government has pegged the cost of the extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) system all the way to Dasmariñas City in Cavite at P64 billion.
The proposed Public Private Partnership (PPP) project dubbed as LRT-6 would further extend the LRT system by another 19 kilometers all the way to Dasmariñas from the proposed end in Niog in Bacoor, Cavite.
The mass transit system would pass along the Aguinaldo Highway and would have stations in Niog, Tirona, Imus, Daang Hari, Salitran, Congressional Avenue, and Governor’s Drive.
Cavite is experiencing a rapid growth, and many of its residents travel to Manila for work and education purposes.
“The project will improve passenger mobility and reduce the volume of vehicular traffic in the Cavite area by providing a higher capacity mass transit system. It also aims to spur economic development along the extension corridor,” the project briefer stated.
The project would be presented to the Cabinet-level National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) for approval.
The DOTC is set to turn over the LRT-1 system to the Light Rail Manila Consortium in the next few months. LRMC bagged the P65-billion LRT-1 Cavite Extension project to Niog in Bacoor, Cavite after offering a premium payment of P9.35 billion.
MPIC’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp. controls 55 percent of the consortium followed by Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. with 35 percent and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte Ltd. with 10 percent.
The PPP project would extend the current system by 11.7 kilometers to Niog in Bacoor from Baclaran by 2019 to provide hundreds of thousands of expected riders with convenient and efficient transportation. The extension would consist of eight new train stations traversing the cities of Parañaque and Las Piñas up to Bacoor.
The DOTC is also pursuing the P9.7- billion extension of LRT-2 all the way to Masinag in Cainta, Rizal. It has awarded a P2.2-billion contract to DM Consunji Inc. for the construction of an elevated walkway or viaduct. The system currently runs from Recto Ave. in Manila to Santolan in Pasig.
The DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) is bidding out separate maintenance contracts for both LRT-1 and LRT-2.
Original Article: www.philstar.com
