The Department of Transportation (DOTr) expects the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to approve a $1-billion loan within the year to finance the planned mass transport system that will run from San Juan City to Taytay City in Rizal province.
“We are targeting to have this approved by the ADB board within the year. Right now, we need to get a NEDA [National Economic Development Authority] Board reapproval for an increase in cost and a change in scope,” DOTr Undersecretary for planning and project development Timothy John Batan said.
Batan said the line was initially planned as a monorail, but was changed to a conventional heavy metro rail system due to anticipated high ridership.
Documents from the ADB showed that the Metro Rail Transit Line 4 project would be a fully-elevated railway mass-transit system serving the eastern side of Metro Manila and the highly-populated areas of Rizal.
The 15.56-kilometer MRT 4, with 11 stations, two other provisional stations in the future and a barrier-free design to allow inclusive access, is expected to address the transport bottleneck along Ortigas Avenue.
The ADB said the MRT 4 project would provide reliable, rapid, affordable and safe public transport and would reduce traffic congestion and commute/travel time from Taytay to the Ortigas CBD from one to three hours by road to less than half an hour by rail.
It will also maintain the high-economic growth and inclusive urban development of eastern Metro Manila, the Ortigas CDB, Pasig City and the neighboring Rizal province, the ADB said.
Once fully operational, the P59.3-billion MRT-4 trains could run 80 kilometers an hour at maximum speed and a commercial speed of 25 kilometers to 40 kilometers an hour.
The railway will cut across the cities of Mandaluyong, San Juan, Quezon, Pasig and the municipalities of Cainta and Taytay in Rizal, addressing the massive traffic problem and limited road capacities in the densely populated areas of eastern Metro Manila.
It is expected to serve 4,464 passengers at peak and 2,678 passengers an hour off-peak with an estimated travel time of 27 minutes from N. Domingo in San Juan to Taytay, Rizal. The daily ridership is expected to reach 328,804 by 2030.
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