Government approves LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project

Although two months later as expected, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project finally got approved by the board of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) together with 11 more projects amounting to a total of PhP133 billion in a meeting held yesterday with President Aquino.

The said project will extend the 20.7 kilometer long LRT Line 1 from the existing Baclaran station all the way down to Bacoor, Cavite. The 11.7 kilometer extension will pass through key areas like Paranaque and Las Piñas City and is expected to add eight more stations plus two provisional station once completed, the proposed stations are: Redemptionist, MIA, Asia World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr. Santos, Manuyo Uno(provisional), Las Piñas, Zapote, Talaba(provisional), and Niyog. Along with the extension, a sattelite depot for maintenance and storage of light train vehicles will be placed at the end of the said line. Several intermodal facilities will also be included in the project.

The LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project will be divided and executed in two phases, the first phase, expected to begin construction by April next year will be from Baclaran Station to Dr. A. Santos Ave. in Paranaque, while the second phase, which is expected to start construction by April 2015 will cover Dr. A. Santos Avenue to Niyog Station at Bacoor, Cavite.

The LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project is one of the projects that is listed under the government's Public-Private Partnership Project along with other key projects that could ease the country's traffic woes like the 13.4 kilometer Nlex-Slex Connector Road that will span from Buendia to Caloocan; Cavite Laguna Expressway which will be consisting of two expressways, the first one will be a 27.5 kilometer, 4-lane highway on the side of Cavite and the other one will be a 14.3 kilometer, 4-lane expressway on the side of Laguna, the CALA Expressway will be connected to SLEX via Sta. Rosa; and lastly the LRT 2 East Extension which will extend the existing 13.8 kilometer tracks by 4 kilometer from Santolan Station to Masinag in Antipolo.

The Market Transformation through Introduction of Energy Efficient Electric Tricycle (E-Trike) Project of the Department of Energy, the Land Transportation Office Infrastructure and Information System (LTO-IIS) Project of the Department of Transportation and Communication, and the Samar Pacific Coastal Road Project by the Department of Public Works and Highways were some of the other projects that got NEDA's approval which could give the Filipino people a better commuting and motoring experience in the near future.