THE Philippines’ first-ever underground mass transport system, considered as one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country, is now being constructed.
A subway in Metro Manila has been planned and proposed as early as 1973 in the Urban Transport Study in Manila Metropolitan Area (UTSMMA).
However, when the Duterte Administration came in June 2016, the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP) had no completed Feasibility Study, no NEDA Board approval, no financing, and not a single contract.
“This means that for more than 40 years and 6 administrations, all we had were talks, proposals, plans, studies, drawings, and powerpoint presentations,” DOTr said in a statement.
Now, the MMSP is already NEDA Board-approved, already funded by the Japanese, and its partial operability civil works, trains, and electromechanical systems already contracted. Actual construction works by the design-build contractor for the partial operability section began in 2019 with site clearing works at MMSP’s Valenzuela Depot.
In February 2021, two out of 25 humungous Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) to be used for the MMSP, arrived in the country.
As of November 2021, the project’s overall progress rate is at 25.09%.
Once operational, the MMSP will reduce travel time between Quezon City and NAIA from 1 hour and 10 minutes to just 35 minutes.
