The Makati City Council has given the go-signal for the joint venture agreement for the P200-billion Makati subway system project.
Officials of the Philippine Infradev Holdings Inc., the city’s private partner in the project, said they received on July 19 a copy of the letter from the Makati City government that the Council approved the ordinance on the terms and conditions of the joint venture.
The deal covers the construction, operation, and management of a subway system within Makati City.
The city government in October 2018 awarded the public-private partnership project to the consortium of Philippine Infradev (formerly IRC Properties).
The consortium counts as members Philippine Infradev and its Chinese partners Greenland Holdings Group, Jiangsu Provincial Construction Group Co. Holdings Ltd., and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.
Once completed in 2025, the Makati Subway will be able to serve up to 27,000 passengers per hour per direction. The system also promises an interval of three to six minutes between trains on the first year, with 12 operational trains.
In the succeeding years, Makati City is eyeing to have 18 trains with a two- to four-minute interval. The City is also prepared to accommodate as many as 40,500 passengers per hour during peak hours. The train system will run on an 18-hour operational cycle.
A reliable, comfortable, and highly-efficient mass transport system will result in less traffic congestion and parking woes in the country’s premier financial district.
Feasibility studies project 270,000 fewer cars in the streets of Makati by 2048. This makes the Makati Subway a more eco-friendly and sustainable solution as well, with a projected reduction of 2.3 million tons of CO2 annually in greenhouse gas emission by 2048.
The subway will not only decongest major thoroughfares, it is also expected to increase work productivity by cutting down the daily commute or travel time of workers.
