MRT management preparing ‘transition team,’ pending end of Busan contract
By Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
THE management of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 said it is readying a transition team, pending the decision of the Department of Transportation (DoTr) on the termination of the contract with current maintenance provider Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI).
”We are just waiting, we are preparing just in case the Secretary cancels the contract… We are coming up with a transition team for the MRT,” MRT-3 General Manager Rodolfo J. Garcia told reporters on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Common Station project.
DoTr Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez had filed a position paper and supplementary paper recommending that the DoTr terminate the contract with BURI due to failure to provide proper maintenance service to the train system, citing recurrent glitches in the system and unloading, and at times minor injuries, of passengers.
BURI has repeatedly denied the claims of Mr. Chavez, saying that the MRT’s malfunctioning is due to “design flaws.”
Government and private sector partners yesterday broke ground on the Common Station that will link four railway lines in Metro Manila.
The P2.8-billion Common Station project has been delayed for about eight years, with the long impasse between Ayala Corporation and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. regarding the location of the station.
The DoTr sees completion of the project in two to three years.
“In two and a half to three years, the Common Station [will be operational],” DoTr Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said in English and Filipino.
Mr. Tugade thanked the private sector partners for “setting aside interests” to work for “the common good.”
“Without our private sector partners, this would not have happened,” he said in his speech.
Light Rail Manila Corp. President Rogelio L. Singson called the project a “game-changer.”
The common station will link the Light Rail Transit (LRT)-1, MRT-3, MRT-7 (under construction), and the recently approved Metro Manila Subway.
It will cover approximately 13,700 square meters of concourse area and will be located between Ayala-owned Trinoma Mall and SM North EDSA. It is expected to serve around 478,000 rail passengers by 2020.
In January, the government and private companies involved in the project signed a memorandum of agreement after years of deadlock on the issue of the location of the Common Station.
This happened after a dispute that even reached the Supreme Court in 2014, when SM Prime sued the government for breach of contract and secured a Supreme Court (SC) stay order stopping the transfer of the Common Station’s site to Trinoma.
In 2009, the government and SM Prime entered into an agreement for the Common Station to be located at a junction near SM City North EDSA. In 2013, the then Department of Transportation and Communications, citing construction costs, decided to transfer the Common Station to a site in front of Trinoma.
