LRT1 Cavite extension construction to start Tuesday

The construction of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT1) Cavite Extension is set to begin on Tuesday, May 7, almost five years after the project was awarded to a private proponent.

"What commences tomorrow is the actual construction of the extension line, fulfilling the decades-old promise of connecting the province of Cavite to Metro Manila through a railway network," the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said in a statement sent to reporters via Viber.

"Tomorrow's ceremony marks a substantial movement from the groundbreaking rite held in May 2017, which was actually intended to mark the start of pre-construction activities then of the rail extension project," added the department.

The statement comes five years after the P64.9-billion project was awarded to the Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) in September 2014.

LRMC is a consortium of Ayala Corporation, Metro Pacific Light Rail Corporation, and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings.

The LRMC, however, only took over the operations and maintenance of the LRT1 rail system in September 2015.

Under the agreement, LRMC will manage the LRT1 for 32 years, during which it will also extend the line by 11.7 kilometers (km) to 32.4 km from the current 20.7 km.

The contract states that LRMC, as the private partner, will undertake the design, construction, and financing of the Cavite Extension, as well as the operation and maintenance of the integrated system upon completion of the project.

To recall, former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III said that he, along with former Transportation and Communciations Secretary Emilio Joseph "Jun" Abaya, was willing to be run over by a train if the project does not materialize by 2015.

"If I haven't ridden on it by 2015, I will be severely disappointed," Aquino also said in 2012.

Abaya earlier said that the delays were caused by the failure in the project's bidding process under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program.

"When the president made that announcement we were still leading up to the bid. No one plans for a failure of bid. We were highly guarding the passenger side, no one showed up at the day of bidding," he said in July 2015.

For his part, then-Communications Secretary Herminio "Sonny" Coloma said that Aquino's remarks were not to be taken literally.

"Since the start of pre-construction activities in May 2017, the DOTr and the LRTA immediately proceeded to the gargantuan task of resolving the Right of Way Acquisition (ROWA)," the DOTr said Monday.

"With all these preparations and preconstruction activities accomplished, we are now ready to start the actual construction of the LRT1 Cavite Extension," it elaborated.

Looking ahead, the DOTr said the extension is expected to be partially operational within the next two years.

"We are training our sights on partial operability of the first five stations of the extension line in two years, or by 2021, to give Filipinos the comfortable life they deserve through enhanced mobility and connectivity," it said. — BM, GMA News