Gov’t to bid out $800-M LRT extension project to Cavite

The Philippine government is planning to bid out the $800-million LRT Line 1 extension to Cavite within the first half of the year, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) Administrator Melquiades Robles said the other day.

In an interview at the LRTA office in Pasay, Robles said the LRTA must fulfill two things before it can bid out the LRT Line 1 extension project.

First, it must pay the original proponent, SNC Lavalin, $5 million for the feasibility study and development plans for the project.

Second, the project must be endorsed by the transportation department for inclusion in the medium-term priority investment plan.

The first phase of the LRTA Line 1 extension project will extend the railway to Bacoor town in Cavite. Projected number of riders is 400,000 passengers per day.

The LRT Line 1 extension may later be extended to Imus town and eventually to Dasmariñas town.

LRT Line 1 carries an average of 350,000 passengers a day.

Robles said the extension would make LRT Line 1 the most viable among the mass railway projects.

He said the World Bank is willing to provide funding for the civil works component of the project, which is usually half of the estimated cost.

The LRTA scrapped last year an agreement with Canadian firm SNC Lavalin, which had offered to undertake the 12-kilometer extension of LRT Line 1 to Bacoor from Baclaran for $867 million.

Robles said the budget department has not yet released the $5 million (about P260 million) that the LRTA has requested. The Canadian firm said it spent $20 million for the study and plans for the rail extension.