BCDA eyeing cheaper transit system to link finance centers

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has been tapped to conduct a full feasibility study on a planned mass transport system that will effectively link the central business districts of Makati, Ortigas, Bonifacio Global City and Newport City.

The study is expected to find alternatives and technologies that will make the proposed monorail system across Metro Manila more feasible, said Arnel Paciano Casanova, president and CEO of the Bases Conversion and Development Administration (BCDA).

In a briefing on Wednesday, Casanova explained that in a previous study, a proposed monorail project costing around P70 billion would have a low rate of return.

“We are looking for a cheaper but equally effective mass transport system,” Casanova said.

BCDA is in talks with the Department of Transportation and Communications about the project and is set to meet with Jica within the month, he added.

As of May last year, Jica was looking at an expanded monorail project that would span the Guadalupe MRT station in Makati City and Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The multilateral agency then agreed to finance the feasibility study, Casanova said.

In 2012, Japanese giants Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi Global expressed their interest in pursuing Phase 1 of the planned monorail system.

The two companies were then looking to forge a partnership to undertake the said project, which would effectively address the growing need for a more efficient mass transport system in Mega Manila.

It was not revealed whether the two firms were still interested in the rail project.—Amy R. Remo