MANILA, Philippines – Residents of Caloocan City who held a rally last year to demand the construction of a Light Rail Transit station in the Edsa-Bagong Barrio area have gotten their wish.

In a statement Monday, Caloocan Mayor Recom Echiverri said President Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the request of his constituents.

“The intermediary train station in Bagong Barrio will certainly benefit daily riders in the area, especially since Bagong Barrio is considered a priority development area for national government projects and zonal improvement programs,” the mayor said.

Ms Arroyo’s order was confirmed by Light Rail Transit Authority Administrator Mel Robles who told the Inquirer that they would submit a similar recommendation to the National Economic and Development Authority.

Neda, for its part, would validate the recommendation that the LRT station be built in Bagong Barrio instead of Balintawak in Quezon City.

The new station is part of the P6.3 billion LRT North Extension project under which a 5.71-km elevated railway would be constructed to connect the LRT Monumento station to the North Avenue station of the Metro Rail Transit.

The project is expected to be completed by 2010.

In November, about 100 Bagong Barrio residents blocked the northbound lane of Edsa to ask the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to build a station in their area.

The residents of Bagong Barrio – which is between the North Luzon Expressway and Monumento – claimed they would not benefit from the extension project because the stations that would be built are too far from the area.

The DOTC’s original plan was to build a station each in Roosevelt and Balintawak.