The Department of Transportation (DOTr) welcomed the year with one major snag resolved with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) among parties involved in the construction of the common station, a facility that will connect three overhead railway systems in Metro Manila.
Officials from the DOTr and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and executives from Ayala Corp., San Miguel Corp., SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) signed on Wednesday a more concrete agreement on the construction of the said infrastructure.
The agreement spells out the parameters for the common station, including the commissioning of the detailed engineering and design, the construction costs and who will shoulder it.
“We have planted the seeds for the fruition of the common station. It is imperative that we finish the signing, start the construction and complete it in two years,” Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said in a press briefing in Makati City. “There’s no turning back from this.”
The tycoons that signed the agreement were all praises to the new government and Tugade. They lauded him for bringing everyone to a consensus, something that the previous government failed to do.
Ayala Corp. CEO Jaime Agusto Zobel de Ayala said his company, which figured in numerous issues with SM Prime in the past, is “looking forward to working with SM for the design.”
“Things are moving and moving fast. This is a milestone wherein we would like to show our support,” SM Prime Board Member Hans Sy said separately. For his part, LRMC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the signing is a “momentous event” that signifies three things.
“One it signifies the public- and private-sector cooperation. Second is that it will bring ease and a lot of comfort to the commuting public. And No. 3 is the very significant investment in this project,” he said. San Miguel President Ramon S. Ang added that the “strong leadership” of President Duterte led to the “sudden” wiping away of nearly eight years’ worth of delay in the project.
The common station will be a 13,700-square-meter facility with three key areas. Area A is where the platform and concourse for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 will be located. The cost for the construction of this portion—pegged at around P2.8 billion—will be shouldered by the government. Area B, on the other hand, will connect Area A to Area C, which is where the platform for the MRT 7 will be located. The second area will also boast of an atrium that can accommodate up to 40,000 passengers per day.
According to Transportation Spokesman Cherie Mercado-Santos, Area B will be financed by Ayala —estimated at around P150 million—and Area C by San Miguel.
The design of the common station was based primarily on optimum passenger comfort and ease of transfer. On the average, passengers need only to walk 125 meters to get from one line to another.
Based on the contract signed with LRMC, the common station should be finished by April 2019. Currently, the government is working on bidding out the detailed engineering and design contract for the project. Construction should start by December this year.
According to Tugade, the design of the common station, which will bear the name of SM, will put into consideration a traffic-management plan that will be approved by the traffic crisis body.
The common station was in limbo for a couple of years after its conception, after getting a stay order from the Supreme Court due to a possible breach in contract.
To recall, SM Prime sued the previous transport department for changing the location of the common station even with an existing naming rights contract with the government. Former transport officials decided to move the location due to its cost benefits.
When built, the common station will provide easy access to both malls and major roads, like Edsa, and will provide a common concourse or atrium to facilitate easy train line transfer.
Image credits: Alysa Salen
1 comment
Finally. DoTR is picking off the low hanging fruits. There was a massive failure of common sense the past 8 years , but now 7 months into the new admin, things are moving in the DoTR.