Groundbreaking for a common station that will connect key Metro Manila railway lines was held on Friday and officials said the project — deferred and delayed for nearly a decade due to a dispute over its location — would finally be completed in 2019.
“We will finish this for the benefit of the majority,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in the vernacular during ceremonies in Quezon City.
The common station will connect the Light Rail Transit-1, Metro Rail Transit-3, the upcoming MRT-7 and the just-approved Metro Manila subway.
To be built at a cost of P2.8 billion, the 13,700-square meter facility is expected to serve 478,000 passengers daily by January 2020.
The SM Group was awarded rights to the common station on September 28, 2009 after it paid the government P200 million in exchange for locating it beside, and naming it after, the SM City North EDSA mall.
A change in government when Benigno Aquino III took over from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 30, 2010, however, led to a decision to relocate the station to the nearby TriNoma mall as this would reportedly lead to some P1.4 billion in savings.
"We intend to bid out the project in another three to four months and will take one year to construct. Hopefully, it will be finished within the term of the President," he said.
The government is reviewing where the "turn-back" system would be constructed. This is the area where the trains would maneuver and change directions.
The SM Group sued in June 2014 and the Supreme Court subsequently restrained the government from implementing the project on August 1, 2014. It was only when the Duterte government took over on June 30 last year that a compromise was reached on September 28.
The common station will now be located between and connect the Annex at SM City North EDSA and Landmark TriNoma malls.
“We will finish this for the benefit of the majority,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in the vernacular during ceremonies in Quezon City.
The common station will connect the Light Rail Transit-1, Metro Rail Transit-3, the upcoming MRT-7 and the just-approved Metro Manila subway.
To be built at a cost of P2.8 billion, the 13,700-square meter facility is expected to serve 478,000 passengers daily by January 2020.
The SM Group was awarded rights to the common station on September 28, 2009 after it paid the government P200 million in exchange for locating it beside, and naming it after, the SM City North EDSA mall.
A change in government when Benigno Aquino III took over from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 30, 2010, however, led to a decision to relocate the station to the nearby TriNoma mall as this would reportedly lead to some P1.4 billion in savings.
"We intend to bid out the project in another three to four months and will take one year to construct. Hopefully, it will be finished within the term of the President," he said.
The government is reviewing where the "turn-back" system would be constructed. This is the area where the trains would maneuver and change directions.
The SM Group sued in June 2014 and the Supreme Court subsequently restrained the government from implementing the project on August 1, 2014. It was only when the Duterte government took over on June 30 last year that a compromise was reached on September 28.
The common station will now be located between and connect the Annex at SM City North EDSA and Landmark TriNoma malls.
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