THE National Development Co. (NDC) will float P4.6 billion worth of bonds on behalf of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) to partly finance the construction of the North Extension Project worth P6.27 billion.

The remaining P1.67 billion will be obtained through a General Appropriations Act enacted by Congress.

 “The North Extension Project will be sourced out from the debt-paper sale of state-owned NDC, amounting to P4.6 billion,” said the LRTA in a statement Wednesday.

Last month the Neda Board approved the techno-feasibility study commissioned by the LRTA.  Metrolink JV won the P230-million consultancy contract for the construction of the project.

The statement said the agency is now accepting bids for service contractor that will perform the actual construction or civil works, as well as the electro-mechanical components for the railway project.

To ensure transparency, the bidding process, particularly the opening of bids, may be monitored by the public online through the LRTA web site.

The LRTA is also planning to invite members of the civil society, like representatives from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Philippine Contractors Association and the Transparency International to observe the process. 

With the publication of the invitations to bid, LRTA administrator Melquiades Robles assured the public that the implementation program for a seamless connectivity from the LRTA’s Baclaran-Monumento Line to MRT’s North Avenue-Pasay Line to close the loop of the Metro Manila Urban Railway System through an entirely elevated 5.4-km viaduct is right on track to meet the agreed completion date of April 2010.

“With the way things are going right now, we are optimistic that construction of the project can finally start by May 2008 so that by May 2010, revenue operations can already be commenced,” Robles said.

On November 28, 2006, President Arroyo directed Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Robles to proceed with the construction of the “LRT-MRT Loop” after thorough evaluation of several construction options. 

Based on the said study, the extension project will include the construction of three new stations—Balintawak, Roosevelt and North stations, which will be equipped with escalators and elevators.

Balintawak and Roosevelt stations, being four-legged intermediate stations, will have mezzanine levels for power substations, equipment rooms and commercial spaces.

With the said project, average daily ridership is set to increase by 66.16 percent, or a total of 535,558 passengers from the current average of 322,309 passengers.

The project is one of the top priority projects of the Arroyo administration. It is expected to serve around 800,000 to one  million passengers once it is fully operational.

The LRTA now has a total fleet of 135 light-rail vehicles, including the 48 newly inaugurated third-generation trains, increasing its capacity from 27,000 passengers per hour per direction to 40,000.

ALIGNED with its thrust of expanding its business and operations outside of Thailand, PTT Philippines Corp. (PTTPC) has offered to the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to come up with a feasibility study on developing a gas pipeline from Batangas to Manila (BatMan-1) and Bataan to Manila (BatMan-2).

THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has already exceeded its full-year goal of generating P100 billion in fresh investments in 2007 as it approved P109 billion worth of new projects after the first three quarters of the year.

THE National Development Co. (NDC) will float P4.6 billion worth of bonds on behalf of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) to partly finance the construction of the North Extension Project worth P6.27 billion.

THE Philippines has imposed a temporary ban on the entry of chicken products, as well as domestic and wild birds and other poultry products from Saskatchewan, Canada, following reports of an avian influenza (AI) outbreak there.

IF you can’t lick them, crack them.

Honda Philippines Inc. (HPI), in coordination with its principal Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (HMC), destroyed on Wednesday 22 fake Honda general-purpose engines at the De La Salle University, Bacolod premises, in place of a motion to withdraw seized articles for destruction it filed before the Regional Trial Court of Bacolod City in June.

DAVAO CITY—Local chief executives in Mindanao will meet their counterparts in the four-nation East Asean Growth Area (Eaga)  to formalize their role in the subregional grouping and to ask their chief ministers or presidents to allow them to forge direct-trade arrangements.

THE world will celebrate World Standards Day on October 14, but the country observed it much earlier as the 33rd National Standards Week was celebrated from October 8  to 14.