Vol. XXI, No. 242 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
Thursday, July 10, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
THE P6.4-BILLION Light Rail Transit (LRT) North Extension Project will be open for business in time for the 2010 presidential polls, officials yesterday said.
LRT Authority Administrator Melquiades A. Robles, in a statement, said the project "will bring the much needed relief to the traffic in the area."
During the project’s ground-breaking, Mr. Robles said Metro Manila’s light rail system had become a social commodity. Its expansion, he added, would decongest traffic, lessen pollution and provide the system more capacity.
He called the project, touted as "Closing the Loop", the government’s long-term response to rising fuel prices.
"Riding the LRT is the most efficient, fastest and cheapest way [to travel] and proven more so with the current fare among other modes of transportation," he said.
The project will connect the LRT Line 1, which runs from Baclaran to Monumento, with the MRT, which traverses Edsa from Pasay to North Ave. in Quezon city. It will involve an entirely elevated 5.4 kilometer viaduct and will feature three new stations: Balintawak, Roosevelt and North Stations.
A DMCI-First Balfour consortium has been awarded the A1, A2 and B packages of the project that will cover the construction of the stations and the train lines. Package C, which will cover the electronics side, is yet to be awarded.
First Balfour CEO Fiorello R. Estuar said the project’s P6.4 billion budget was under pressure due to the rise in prices of construction materials. He said this had prompted the company to redesign the project to make it more efficient to build. He assured however, that quality of construction would not suffer. — P. L. G. Montecillo
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