The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Monday bared a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for $900 million whose proceeds will finance the construction of the proposed mass transport system running from San Juan City to Taytay in Rizal province.
“We expect the loan agreement will be signed sometime in the first quarter or second quarter of next year,” DOTr said.
The Metro Rail Transit Line 4 project is a fully-elevated railway transit system serving the east side of Metro Manila and the highly-populated province of Rizal.
The 12.7-kilometer MRT4 with 10 stations will address the transport bottleneck along Ortigas Avenue.
According to the DOTr, project design began this year and early works should start next year with completion likely in 2028.
Once operational in 2028, the P59.3-billion MRT line has commercial speed of 25 up to 40 kilometers per hour but has maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour.
The railway line will cut across the cities of Mandaluyong, San Juan, Quezon, Pasig and the municipalities of Cainta and Taytay in Rizal, addressing their massive traffic problem and limited road capacity in the densely populated eastern areas of Metro Manila.
The line will serve 4,464 passengers at peak and 2,678 passengers an hour off-peak at an estimated travel time of 27 minutes from N. Domingo in San Juan City to Taytay, Rizal. The daily ridership is expected to reach 328,804 by 2030.
According to the ADB, the project will provide reliable, rapid, affordable and safe public transport and reduce traffic congestion and commute/travel times from Taytay to the Ortigas central business district from one to three hours by road to less than half an hour by rail.
It will also sustain the high-economic growth and inclusive urban development of eastern Manila, the Ortigas CDB, Pasig City and the neighboring Rizal province, the ADB said.
“With insufficient public transport options available and no capable public mass-rapid-transit systems in place, travel times during peak hours along this corridor can take an average of three hours for the 11.5 kilometer journey from Tikling in Taytay, Rizal to the Ortigas CBD in Mandaluyong City,” ADB said.
