Metro Manila Subway will be flood resilient –DOTr's Tugade

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said on Friday that the Metro Manila Subway would be resilient against flooding as the government was working with Japanese firms on the project.

During the virtual media factory tour and factory acceptance test of the Metro Manila Subway project, Tugade said the experience, skills, and technology being used on the project was from Japan's JIM Technology Corporation.

“[They] are not new in tunneling and subway projects… They have a long history of experience and in putting up subways similar to what we want to happen at the Metro Manila Subway Station,” said the DOTr Secretary.

“Bear in mind that the location in Japan is worse than the location in the Philippines… The subways in Japan are never flooded and they are using that technology, the same technology we are using,” he added.

Tugade also said that part of the exercise that has been done in planning the technological details of the subway project was soil and ground testing, which he said was “done extensively.”

Meanwhile, the subway project was still on track to start partial operations by the end of 2021.

The full operation of the subway project, dubbed as the Philippines’ “Project of the Century,” was set for 2024 or 2025.

Tugade conceded that there were construction delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic but workers were making up for the lost time.

The Transportation Secretary earlier said partial operability of the subway comprises the first stations in Quezon City and in Valenzuela City, where the line's depot is also located.

Once completed and fully operational, the Metro Manila Subway will cut down travel time from Quezon City to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to about 40 minutes.

It will have a total of 15 stations, including a terminal station at the NAIA Terminal 3.

In 2018, Philippine officials signed a ¥104.530-billion (around P51 billion) loan deal with the Japan International Cooperation Committee (JICA) to finance the first phase of the subway project.  — DVM, GMA News