San Miguel starts construction of MRT7 depot in Bulacan

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has officially started the construction of the train depot for the upcoming Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT7) in Bulacan, the diversified conglomerate announced Tuesday.

SMC said its infrastructure unit began construction on a 20-hectare property in San Jose del Monte City, which will serve as the main stabling area or train depot.

The depot will have the capacity to accommodate up to 150 train cars, as the company seeks to ensure room for expansion with the 36 train sets or 108 rail cars currently set for the project.

“With the necessary land area for the MRT7 depot finally complete, we can’t waste any more time; our people are fully committed to delivering this vital project to the public as soon as possible,” SMC president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang said in an emailed statement.

The project is estimated to be ready to support essential operations by the end of 2023, with a completion estimate of over 60%. Most of the construction work is focused on the first 12 of its 14 stations.

SMC started the installation of the first train sets from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem in September 2021, with the remaining sets expected to be fully delivered by the end of this year.

The MRT7 is an unsolicited proposal of the San Miguel Group under a public-private partnership project pegged at P77 billion.

The project involves the financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the 23-kilometer elevated railway that will have 14 stations connecting San Jose del Monte in Bulacan to the MRT3 North Avenue station in Quezon City.

It will also have a 22-kilometer asphalt road from the Bocaue Interchange of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to the intermodal terminal in Tala, diverting northern provincial bus operations to San Jose del Monte in a bid to decongest EDSA.

Officials of the then-Department of Transportation and Communications, SMC, and then-President Benigno Aquino III led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project in April 2016.

SMC shares were down by P1.80, or 1.68%, to P105.20 as of 2:29 p.m. on Tuesday. —VBL, GMA News