The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has widened its collaboration with Meralco to speed up the relocation of power facilities affected by the pursuit of various rail projects.
Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista thanked Meralco for completing 47 percent of nearly 700 relocation work orders .
“We are grateful to Meralco for acting swiftly on these work orders,” Bautista said.
To enable the DOTr to meet the rail projects’ construction schedule, the interfacing Meralco lines have to be relocated, Bautista explained.
“We want Meralco to be on board so we can efficiently solve right-of-way issues and accomplish these projects as soon as possible,” he said.
The DOTr earlier said 23 of the 69 infrastructure projects focus on railway improvements and expansions.
Five of the projects, including the North-South Commuter Railway, the Metro Manila Subway, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, MRT Line 7, and MRT Line 3 rehabilitation, are under construction.
The railway projects, when completed, will help address the country’s traffic woes as the rail lines operate, Bautista said .
The North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) alone is capable of servicing at least one million passengers while MRT-3 line can carry 500,000 passengers daily.
Also, the Metro Manila Subway can accommodate 519,000 passengers daily and the MRT-7 and LRT-1 Cavite Extension serve another 800,000 passengers and 300,000 passengers, respectively.
