P227-B Metro Manila subway groundbreaking finally set

EQUIPMENT CHECK Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade inspects a scale model of a tunnel-boring machine. —DOTR photo

After several postponements, the groundbreaking ceremony for the much-awaited Metro Manila subway project will finally happen on Feb. 27.

Top officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) led by Secretary Arthur Tugade are currently in Japan to meet with their counterparts on the status of the project and several others.

Both parties are expected to discuss the needed equipment and other commitments for the 30-km subway system to be funded by a P45-billion loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

One of the details currently being ironed out is the delivery of tunnel-boring machines (TBM) manufactured by Japan-based Hitachi Zosen’s Sakai Works.

The purchase of the 600-ton TBMs with a 6.9-meter diameter—used to excavate tunnels while minimizing vibration above ground—is underway, the DOTr said.

The P227-billion Metro Manila subway is among the flagship projects under the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.