The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Monday said the Bulacan International Airport and the country’s first subway are likely partly operational by the end of the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2028.
Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista said the land development of the P740-billion New Manila International Airport project in Bulacan being developed by San Miguel Corp. is now almost 70 percent to 75 percent complete.
“We’re expecting it to be completed by the end of this year or early first quarter of next year and after that the group of Mr. Ramon Ang can start construction of runways and the passenger terminal building,” Bautista said in a broadcast interview.
According to Bautista, he has met with Ang who confirmed all plans are on track, its financing in place and their technical people working on it even as the agency continues to review their submission of documents.
He is optimistic the new airport will be partly operational before President Marcos leaves the office.
The Bulacan airport project will feature four parallel runways, a world-class terminal and a modern and interlinked infrastructure network that includes expressways and railways.
San Miguel has tapped the services of global firms Groupe ADPi, Meinhardt Group and Jacobs Engineering to design and build the New Manila International Airport.
Bautista also said the P488.5 billion Metro Manila Subway Project is similarly partly operational by 2028 and fully operational by 2029.
“We’re hoping that by the end of the year the tunnel from Valenzuela to Quirino Avenue will have been completed,” he said.
“We’re taking delivery of more tunnel boring machines which operate simultaneously so that we will be able to finish the project by 2028 or maybe 2029. But we will try our best to complete it by 2028 or make it partly operational by 2028,” Bautista added.
The 33-kilometer subway, dubbed as the “project of the century” stretches from Valenzuela in the north to NAIA Terminal Terminal 3 and FTI in the south.
The project is expected to reduce travel time between Quezon City and NAIA from one hour and 30 minutes down to just 35 minutes. It is expected to serve around 370,000 passengers a day in its first year of full operations, with capacity to serve up to 1 million passengers a day in later years.
The MMSP is physically interconnected and interoperable with the North-South Commuter Railway System’s south segment, enabling a passenger to board a subway train, for example, in North Ave. Station of MMSP and get off at the Calamba Station of NSCR.
