LRT extension to ease Cavite traffic — DOTC

Construction work on the 12-kilometer light rail transit from Baclaran in Parañaque City to Bacoor, Cavite will start early next year to declog traffic along the busy Coastal Road and Aguinaldo Highway, Transportation Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez announced yesterday.

"The 550,000-passenger capacity of the LRT would greatly reduce travel time that dissipates working time and reduces worker productivity," Alvarez said.

He observed that the province of Cavite hosts more than 1,000 companies at its various economic and special zones, many of whose workers commute daily between Metro Manila and their places of work.

The construction of the $847-million LRT project was approved by the Cabinet’s Investment Coordinating Committee and the National Economic and Development Authority.

Approved was the implementation agreement between the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) and the SNC Lavelin of Canada.

The Cavite project is part of the overall mass transportation system in Metro Manila and its environs, including extensions of the LRT to Antipolo City and Santolan in Pasig City.

Alvarez said the Cavite rail transit project will ease traffic in Metro Manila, including EDSA, as Cavite commuters can interlink with the existing LRT in Baclaran and the MRT along Taft Avenue in Pasay.

No less than President Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia were trapped in a huge traffic jam at EDSA on Thursday.

It is expected that with the full operation of the Cavite LRT and other LRT extensions, such as the Pasig City extension, there will be a reduction of buses plying the EDSA route because commuters would choose the faster Light Rail Transit.

According to Alvarez, the DOTC target date for completing the first phase of the Cavite rail line from Baclaran to Sucat, Parañaque is 2004 but construction work may be speeded up to achieve earlier completion.

The second and third phases of the project, covering about 15 kilometers from Dr. Santos Avenue in Parañaque to Imus and Dasmariñas in Cavite, are scheduled to be finished by early 2005.

"Right-of-way negotiations are slowing down the project. In time, however, we will find the proper accommodation with the landowners and inaugurate a vital service for commuters," Alvarez concluded.