Japan funds $2.4-B railway for Manila

Removing UV Express shuttles and taking away provincial buses is just one way the government is trying to decongest Metro Manila. They are also using railways to further remove vehicles from the road.

 

LRT1, LRT2, AND MRT3 might soon be joined by a younger yet bigger sibling in Manila. LRT and MRT photos used in collage grabbed from Wikipedia

 

Japan announced on Friday, August 12 that they would be funding a $2.4 billion (almost P112 trillion) railway project that should help ease the congestion in Metro Manila.

Reports say that the 38-kilometer elevated commuter line would connect Metro Manila and Bulacan. This will help not only by decongesting city streets but also promoting economic activity in the province.

Japan Foreign Ministry’s Masato Ohtaka said that the project was “one of the biggest Japan has ever embarked upon using the yen loan.”

“Railways are one of our fortes… We sympathize with the Filipinos that this is a project that needs to be done very, very quickly,” he added.

Apart from the Manila railway project, Ohtaka also said that Japan was okay with building a railway in the southern region of Mindanao, the same project that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte earlier said China willing to fund.

The railway was just one of the many topics Ohtaka and President Duterte discussed last Thursday, August 11, during the former’s visit to Duterte in Davao City.

The loan is intended for use by the Department of Transportation, and is payable over 40 years according to Ohtaka. No timeline was given on the project.

 

Source: GMA News Online, Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN News