By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz
The Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7), one of the flagship transportation projects of the Duterte administration, is now 63.35 percent complete, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said on Monday.
In a Facebook post, the DOTr said the construction of the project continues to accelerate to serve the public as soon as possible.
“Oras na matapos at maging operational ang MRT-7, ang dating 2-3 hours na biyahe ng ating mga kababayan mula North Avenue, Quezon City patungong San Jose del Monte sa Bulacan, ay magiging 35 minutes na lamang (Once the MRT-7 is complete and operational, the previous two to three-hour travel between North Avenue and San Jose del Monte will be reduced to just 35 minutes),” the DOTr said.
The MRT-7, it said, will be capable of serving an average of 300,000 to 500,000 passengers in a single day.
First conceptualized in an unsolicited proposal in August 2001, the MRT-7’s concession agreement was signed on June 8, 2008.
By the beginning of the Duterte administration in 2016, the project had yet to materialize.
“Ni walang poste o isang tren man lang ang kanilang nadatnan. Kaya naman, sinikap ng DOTr at San Miguel Corporation (SMC) na simulan at isakatuparan ang proyekto (There was not a single post or train by then. That’s why the DOTr and SMC strived to start and turn the project into reality),” the DOTr said.
In December last year, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade unveiled the first six trains to be used in the MRT-7.
