Gov’t gunning for $1.5-B MRT 4 loans this year

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is keen on securing within this year a total of over $1.5 billion for the construction of Metro Rail Transit Line (MRT) 4, a project designed to service the eastern side of Metro Manila.

Timothy John Batan, DOTr Undersecretary for planning and project development, told reporters last week they were in talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for the project funding.

“We’re still targeting to have this (loan) approved by the ADB board and AIIB board within the year,” Batan said.

For ADB, the loan to be extended amounts to $1 billion. Meanwhile, the government is asking for $537.4 million from AIIB.

Batan said that before the granting of the loan, they also have to first obtain approval from the National Economic and Development Authority for the increase in project cost.

The MRT 4 project cost was initially tagged at P58.92 billion (equivalent to about $1 billion), but Batan said this would go up due to the redesign. He said the new estimate has yet to be determined pending a study.

The DOTr is back to the drawing board after finding out that the original plan, which is to build a monorail, was not sufficient to accommodate the projected growth in passenger volume. Instead, a conventional railway with a bigger capacity will be built to serve more commuters.

MRT 4 is a 13.4-kilometer elevated railway system. It is designed to have 10 stations that link Taytay, Rizal to the Ortigas central business district. The railway project is also intended to have integrated terminals for bus and jeepneys. INQ