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The first tunnel boring machine of the Metro Manila Subway Project will be lowered in May to proceed with the start of underground works in August
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The Department of Transportation will start a test run of the Valenzuela depot in May
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Overall project completion rate is at 30.55% as of February 2022
The first tunnel boring machine of the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) will be lowered in May to proceed with the start of underground works in August, according to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
DOTr will start a test run of the Valenzuela depot in May. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, during an inspection of the project on March 8, said based on the department’s timetable the project from Valenzuela to the North Avenue station will be completed in 2.5 years.
Early in 2021, DOTr took delivery of two of the 25 TBMs to be used for the MMSP.
DOTr undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan, in a separate statement, said overall project completion rate is at 30.55% as of February 2022.
Batan said the ongoing manufacturing of pre-cast concrete tunnel rings at the 7.5-hectare fabrication yard in Norzagaray, Bulacan has already completed 576 out of 6,400 tunnel rings that will be used for the partial operability segment.
Moreover, DOTr has also acquired 197,000 square meters (sqm) of land and 585 structures from 324 property owners. Batan said that in coordination with the local government of Valenzuela City, there were “no forced eviction resettlement of 183 informal settler families” during relocation.
The MMSP is the first underground railway system in the country that will provide the most modern mass transportation in the National Capital Region. It will stretch fromValenzuela City to Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), Parañaque, and Ninoy Aquino InternationalAirport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay, and will further extend across the north and southzones of the Greater Capital Region.
The 36-kilometer subway project aims to ease traffic congestion, meet fast risingtransport demand, and reduce air pollution in the country’s premier urban center. The17-station subway will reduce travel time between Quezon City and NAIA from the current 70 minutes to only 35 minutes.
The first phase of the MMSP will be constructed using cutting-edge Japanese tunnelling technology and will stretch from Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to FTI in Taguig before continuing on to NAIA.
The Philippines and Japan on February 10 signed the JPY253.3 billion (P112.9 billion) loan agreement for the second tranche funding to be used to construct MMSP Phase 1. The first tranche of the loan worth JPY104.53 billion (about P47.58 billion or US$933.73million) was signed in March 2018.
In December 2020, DOTr and the Department of National Defense (DND) signed a Right of Way Usage Agreement, in which DND-Armed Forces of the Philippines is providing 50,000 sqm of its land for the subway’s station works; an additional 60,000 sqm of land for interstation tunneling works; and an additional 55,000 sqm of land for temporary works.
