The group of property and retail magnate Henry Sy is open to the idea of building two common stations to link three overhead railway lines in Metro Manila, instead of fighting with its rival over the location of one common station.
Teresita T. Sy-Coson, an adviser to the board of SM Prime Holdings Inc., said her company is willing to find a compromise deal with Ayala Land Inc. for the location of the common station, which is expected to bring additional foot traffic to the malls near the train systems in North Edsa, Quezon City.
Sy-Coson, the eldest child of the country’s top billionaire, said the key to the compromise is for her mall, SM North Edsa, to have its own common station, not minding if Ayala Land’s TriNoma Mall gets its own.
“As long as we have our own station, then we are okay with it,” she said in a brief interview.
It has been several years now since the P1.4-billion facility has been planned, but the location of the transportation infrastructure has yet to be agreed upon.
The common alignment, which aims to link the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Lines 3 and 7, has been in limbo since the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) reviewed the project’s technical and financial components years back.
This led to the change of the station’s location, which was initially set to be near SM North Edsa, earning the ire of the group of the country’s largest mall operator, which paid an initial P200 million for the naming rights of the station.
Transportation officials have repeatedly said building the station near TriNoma is both economically and environmentally viable, as this would result in a lower cost and less urban blight.
SM Prime then brought its battle to the Supreme Court, which issued a stay order against the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) in 2014, enjoining them to stop the transfer of the common alignment’s location.
Finally deciding on the station’s location would allow Universal LRT Corp. (ULC), a unit of San Miguel Corp., to move on with the future MRT 7.
Currently, the most-diversified conglomerate in the Philippines is negotiating with contractors and suppliers for the construction requirements of the MRT 7.
The rail component of the MRT 7 project involves the construction of a 22.8-kilometer rail-transit system that is envisioned to operate 108 rail cars in a three-car train configuration with a daily passenger capacity ranging from 448,000 to 850,000.
It will have 14 stations, starting with the North Avenue Station in Edsa passing through Commonwealth Avenue, Regalado Avenue and Quirino Highway up to the proposed Intermodal Transport Terminal in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.
The road component of the project, meanwhile, involves the construction of a six-lane access road from San Jose del Monte to Balagtas, Bulacan, North Luzon Expressway Exit.
It is seen to be completed by 2018.