Construction of the Metro Manila Subway Project has formally started with site clearing works for the partial operability section of the subway in Valenzuela City.
The partial operability section is comprised of the first stations to be located in Valenzuela City and Quezon City, the line’s depot in Valenzuela City, and the buildings for the Philippine Railway Institute (PRI), the country’s first ever railway training center.
The depot site in Barangay Ugong in Valenzuela is also where the subway line’s East Valenzuela Station will be located.
Once completed and fully operational, the Metro Manila Subway Project will be an expansive 36-kilometer railway system with 15 stations starting from Quirino Highway in Quezon City and ending at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay and Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) in Taguig, in the process crossing seven local governments, and passing through three of Metro Manila’s business districts.
The underground rail line is expected to serve 370,000 passengers daily in its first year of full operations, and is targeted to be partially operable by 2021.
In a ceremony on December 21, the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the project lead, distributed the checks and oversaw the signing of the deeds of absolute sale with landowners affected by the project.
DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said that of the 460 lots required for the partial operability section, 364 offers to buy have already been issued based on current market value appraised by LandBank of the Philippines.
Of the 364 lot owners, 285 have accepted the buyout offer or are already completing documentation requirements to sell their properties to the government.
As for the informal settlers, 178 out of 183 affected families have already been resettled in Disiplina Village in Barangay Bignay, Valenzuela City, with the support of the Valenzuela City local government.
Following the official transfer of the properties to DOTr, contractors have started the clearing and fencing of portions of the depot.
The subway project aims to ease traffic congestion, meet fast-rising transport demand, and reduce air pollution in the country’s premier urban center.
A flagship project under the administration’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure program, the first phase of the Metro Manila subway will be constructed using cutting-edge Japanese tunneling technology and a JPY104.53 billion (about P49.11 billion or US$943.34 million) loan from Japan.
The first phase will stretch from Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to FTI in Taguig, before continuing to NAIA.
DOTr said that since Metro Manila’s weather and seismic conditions are very similar to those of Japan, the Metro Manila Subway is employing proven Japanese technologies to make the railway system resilient to natural disasters.
Last February 20, DOTr and Japanese firm Shimizu Corp. signed the contract that has been awarded to the joint venture of Shimizu, Fujita Corp., Takenaka Civil Engineering Co., Ltd., and EEI Corp.
The joint venture will be pursuing the design and build of the 36-kilometer subway’s partial operability section.