Govt Faces Delays With MM Subway Due to Land Acquisition Issues

The construction of Phase One of the Metro Manila subway is looking at delays as the government experiences challenges in terms of land acquisition according to its project manager.

Manila Subway Project Manager Mikaela Eloisa D. Mendoza has mentioned that “There are property owners who refuse to cooperate, but we are getting help from different agencies and local government units in order to proceed,”

She adds that land expropriation is a way to speed up the process.

According to Mendoza,  the department is still targeting the completion of the subway by 2028.

“We are incurring delays (in the project implementation) because of the pandemic aside from the right-of-way (ROW) acquisition. Now that the situation is going back to normal, the construction continues,”  mentioned Mendoza.

The Metro Manila subway runs over 33 kilometers from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Valenzuela city and has 17 stations. This project is worth over ₱357 billion.

Former President of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, Rene S. Santiago has stated that the chosen completion date for the project is not realistic.

“The 2028 completion date is a long shot after I read the news items about two awards for contract packages. One stated 67 months to complete, equal to 5.6 years or nearly the end of 2028. That is only one work package involving two stations and the tunneling in between,” mentioned Santiago.

“The alleged ROW problem should not have happened if they optimized the use of TBMs (tunnel boring machines) and divided the contracts differently. Use only four TBMs, and two separate tunneling contract packages; equal to less surface disruptions and speedier construction. Estimated time for tunneling is 4.5 years,”  he said.

Santiago says that a more realistic completion date would be by 2030.

Source: Business World