If you’ve been keeping up with infrastructure and transport news, then you’ll have heard about the planned Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP). More recently, the first tunnel boring machine (TBM) which will dig to form the initial structure of this project was successfully lowered.
The lowering of the boring machine is no easy feat
This of course marks the start of this ambitious undertaking, which was dubbed by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade as the “Project of the Century”.
If you’re wondering about what “lowered” entails, then be aware that it literally means that they have managed to lower a multi-ton machine into a hole. The said hole is the starting point for the construction of a 33-kilometer-long underground railway.
The said railway will snake through multiple locations in Metro Manila and will work in conjunction with 17 planned train stations. That said, its completion might help decongest much of Metro Manila, and it will also complement the already existing forms of public transport in the region. Once completed, it will also work in conjunction with existing railways such as the LRT and MRT lines.
Of note, the daily projected ridership for the MMSP will number by as much as 370,000. Its planned route will run north to south and vice versa, and will pass through the cities of Quezon City, Pasig City, Taguig, Makati City, Parañaque, and Pasay.
The boring machine's business end, aka its cutter head
Its final opening is scheduled for 2027, but before that, it will be partially opened in 2025. Moreover, the budget for this project is projected to amount to as much as Php 355.6 billion.
That’s a good chunk of dough, but do be aware that most of the costs of this project were loaned to the Philippine government by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Tugade also promised that the construction of the MMSP will continue even as Duterte passes on the torch to another administration on June 30, 2022.
Are you excited to see the future of MMSP? Are you keen on taking a ride on it someday?
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