THE Department of Transportation (DoTr) said yesterday that the timetable for the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) is “on track,” rejecting a news report that construction may be set back by nine months.
The DoTr, in a statement, said the original timetable for starting construction is the fourth quarter of 2018, and rejected the Kyodo News agency’s report of a nine-month delay.
Kyodo said that Jonathan Uy, assistant secretary for investment programming at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), told a forum in Manila that the timeline of the implementation of the project incorporates such factors as the formalization of a loan agreement.
The report added that the schedule is based on an estimated timetable given by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to NEDA.
“It is wrong to say that the project is delayed because the original schedule for groundbreaking is fourth quarter of 2018,” DoTr Assistant Secretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan said in a message to reporters.
“The Metro Manila Subway Project is on track. In fact, instead of the original completion date for the entire system in 2025, the DoTr, after determined negotiations led by Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, has successfully agreed with the Japanese government to pursue the advance completion of a segment of MMSP by the second quarter of 2022,” the department said in a statement.
In September, the NEDA Board, chaired by President Rodrigo R. Duterte, approved the P355.588-billion first phase of the Metro Manila Subway.
The DoTr said that during the approval of the project, the NEDA Board also set timelines for the signing with the Japanese government of the exchange of notes during the upcoming Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit (next week), and the signing of the loan agreement (set in January 2018). “Achievement of all these immediate milestones is on track.”
It also said that activities leading to the pre-construction activities such as acquisition of right-of-way are “on track,” scheduled to be completed from the fourth quarter this year to the third quarter of 2018. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
