MANILA, Philippines — The tunnel boring machine needed to start the construction of the $3.5 billion Makati subway is expected to arrive in the country by December, Mayor Abby Binay said Tuesday.
“Hopefully the tunnel boring machine will arrive by December this year,” she said during the signing of a joint venture with Philippine Infradev Holding Incorporated held at the Makati City Hall.
“Yung tunnel boring is the technology that we will use to ensure that the project will be completed on time,” she added.
Infradev President Antonio Tiu said that the tunnel boring machine will be coming from China.
The target completion date of the subway is before the last quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, the target operational year of the subway is by 2025.
According to Binay, the construction of the subway aims to address the traffic woes around the city as it also promotes the use of bike lanes.
“With the subway, we will be able to address our concern in traffic. Mababawasan ang sasakyan na papasok sa loob at umiikot sa loob ng lungsod,” she said.
“Gusto natin na eventually dadating ang panahon na magkakaroon ng carless day or carless week or lalakihan natin yung mga pedestrians natin and even our bike lanes,” she added.
Aside from this, the subway may also encourage the public to commute instead of using their cars going to work.
Binay noted that with the use of the Makati subway, commuters trip from EDSA-Ayala going to Ospital ng Makati would be down to 10 minutes.
The subway is expected to have up to 10 stations, and six car trains that can accommodate over 200 persons per car.
With regards to the fare of the Makati subway, Binay said that it is still “premature” to say given the year of operations.
“We don’t know the inflation rate. We don’t know how much will be the cost of electricity in 2025. So it is rather premature to speculate on the fare,” she said. /je