The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is sanguine about securing a $1 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) this year to fund the construction of Metro Rail Transit Line 4 (MRT-4).
“We are aiming to have this approved by the ADB board within the year. Right now we need to get a NEDA Board reapproval for an increase in cost and a change in scope,” Timothy John Batan, DOTr undersecretary for planning and project development, said.
Batan said the line was initially planned as a monorail but changed to a conventional heavy metro rail system due to anticipated high ridership.
Documents show the Metro Rail Transit Line 4 project as a fully-elevated, mass-transit railway serving the eastern side of Metro Manila and the highly-populated areas of Rizal.
The 15.56-kilometer MRT4 project with 11 stations will help decongest transport bottlenecks along Ortigas Avenue.
The ADB said the project will provide rapid, reliable, affordable and safe public transport reducing traffic congestion and commute/travel times 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 Manila, the Ortigas CBD, Pasig City and the neighboring Rizal province, the ADB said.
When fully operational, the P59.3-billion MRT-4 will deploy trains running 80 kilometers per hour maximum speed. Its commercial speed has been set at 25 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 seen serving 4,464 passengers at peak and 2,678 passengers an hour off-peak. Travel time is estimated from N. Domingo in San Juan City to Taytay, Rizal is only 27 minutes. Daily ridership is expected to reach 328,804 by 2030.
