Metro Manila Subway project on-track despite ‘minimal’ delay due to ECQ

The Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) flagship Metro Manila Subway project is still on-track despite the delays brought by a brief halt in construction activities amid the enhanced community quarantine.

During a virtual presser on Thursday, Philippine National Railways general manager Junn Magno said that works on the subway project resumed two weeks ago.

“Sa subway, karamihan sa trabaho ngayon ay pagkuha ng right-of-way para matayo ‘yung mga staging areas para sa tunnel borring machines,” Magno said.

“Nag-resume na po ‘yan two weeks ago,” he said.

For his part, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said that flagship infrastructure projects “will not stop because of the coronavirus.”

“We will not stop working,” Tugade said.

Magno said that despite the minimal delay on the subway, the project is “still on track.”

In December 2019, the DOTr formalized the project’s construction as it cleared a site for the partial operability section of the Metro Manila Subway.

The partial operability section of the subway included the first stations in Valenzuela City and Quezon City, the line's depot in Valenzuela City, and buildings for the Philippine Railway Institute (PRI), the country's first-ever railway training center.

Dubbed as the “Project of the Century,” the underground rail line was expected to serve 370,000 passengers daily in its first year of full operations, and was targeted to be partially operable by 2021.

Once completed and fully operational, the Metro Manila Subway Project would have a total of 15 stations, including a terminal station at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3. —LDF, GMA News