DoTr seeks higher MRT-4 loan as plan changes

The Department of Transportation or DoTr will request the National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA to adjust the loan amount needed to finance the construction of the proposed Metro Rail Transit Line 4 or MRT-4, which will now be a regular light rail system instead of the initially planned monorail.

"We will need to get the NEDA approval because there is a change in plan. There is a change in scope and change in costs," Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday.

Bautista disclosed that the detailed engineering design for the MRT-4 project is being finalized.

"The original MRT-4 was supposedly a monorail but now we will make it a regular light rail because we are reviewing ridership for it. It is quite big, too. The monorail has limited capacity," the Transport chief explained.

The construction of the MRT-4, which will supposedly start next year, was initially estimated to cost around P60 billion.

Early this year, the DoTr awarded a one-year Shadow Operator Consultant contract for MRT-4 to Project Consultant Ricardo Rail Australia Pty Ltd.

The agreement requires the consultant to prepare for the handover to the Operations and Maintenance Concessionaire, as well as to ensure that the designs of the Engineering and Architectural Consultant are properly followed.

The MRT-4 project is an Asian Development Bank-funded big-ticket railway project expected to ease traffic on the eastern side of Metro Manila.

"Once operational, the more than 400,000 passengers expected to ride the MRT 4 will be more than grateful for solving the perennial traffic problem along the stretch of Ortigas Avenue," Bautista said.

Intended to serve the eastern side of the metropolis including the highly-populated areas of the province of Rizal, the MRT-4 is an approximately 13.4-kilometer-long proposed railway mass-transit system.

The 10-station, elevated metro rail transit will traverse along Ortigas Avenue and Ortigas Avenue Extension, starting at EDSA Station near Robinsons Galleria in Quezon City and ending at Taytay Station near the Taytay Public Market and the intersection of Taytay Diversion Road and Manila East Road.