CONSTRUCTION OF the Taguig Integrated Terminal Exchange (ITX) will start by the second half of the year, the government announced yesterday.

The Department of Transportation (DoTr), together with partner Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, Jan. 17, for the project that is expected to be operational by the first half of 2020.

The Taguig ITX project, the DoTr said in a statement, is a six-storey building on a 5.57-hectare area inside the Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI) compound and will connect passengers from the Laguna-Batangas areas to other transport hubs.

The project will also provide bays and parking for 1,200 public utility buses and vehicles. Upon completion, Taguig ITX is expected to house around 4,000 buses and accommodate 160,000 passengers daily. It will feature a pedestrian walkway connection to the Philippine National Railways (PNR) FTI station and the proposed subway system, and will house a passenger concourse, a centralized ticketing area, and business establishments.

The DoTr also announced that ALI has agreed to forgo the P277-million annual grantor payment (AGP), which is supposed to be paid by the government on a yearly basis for 35 years.

Transport Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said in the statement that “he sat down with (the) top honchos of ALI to forgo the P277-million AGP.”

“Let‘s find ways how we can stop the practice and paradigm of government paying the private sector royalty grounds as they operate terminals. Under the contract,” Mr. Tugade said.

ALI won the bidding for the project in 2015 under the previous government, with the project then named the integrated transport system south terminal (ITS South), after offering a lower AGP than Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI). — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

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