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THE
government will use proceeds from the value-added tax
(VAT) to fund the long-delayed Light Rail Transit North
(LRT) extension project targeted for completion before
she steps down in 2010.
The
President told reporters in an informal interaction in
Clark Free Port that the LRT North extension project,
linking the LRT Line 1 end station in Monumento,
Caloocan City, to the MRT Line 3 station in North
Avenue, will commence civil works next month.
She said
she ordered concerned officials to “close the loop”
using “VAT revenues” because “a loan takes time.”
Edgardo
Pamintuan, Luzon Urban Beltway super region champion,
said the President decided to focus on completing the
North extension project to link all extant metropolitan
railways. She, thus, also “scrapped for the meantime”
the other components of the Edsa North Transit (ENT)
project.
The ENT
was to stretch from North Avenue to Malabon and connect
the MRT 3 and the planned MRT 7 via a rail depot,
providing a link to the south rail and north rail lines.
Pamintuan said the President wants to see the operation
of the MRT-LRT Loop while she is still in office, and to
just let her successor deal with the rest of the ENT.
He said
the civil works for the project would be carried out as
the Light Rail Transit Administration bids out the
contract for the electro-mechanical component of the
elevated railway. There had been two previous biddings.
Both failed. |
