The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has announced that the LRT Line 2 East Extension will start operations on July 6. This project adds 3.793km to the current 13.8km of the LRT-2 line with two new stations – the Marikina-Pasig and Antipolo stations.
Photo credits: Ace Morandante / Presidential Photo
President Rodrigo Duterte, along with DOTr Secretary Art Tugade and Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) Administrator Reynaldo Berroya, led the inauguration of the PHP 4.5 billion LRT-2 East Extension Project on Thursday, July 1.
Photo credits: DOTr
Once operational, the line will add 80,000 to the current 240,000 projected average daily ridership of the LRT-2, increasing its daily passenger capacity to 320,000.
The LRT-2 East Extension Project is expected to reduce travel time from Claro M. Recto in Manila to Masinag in Antipolo from three hours via bus or jeepney to 30 to 40 minutes.
In addition, the said project was able to generate at least 1,800 jobs during its construction phase, and another 170 rail personnel will be employed to work in the line’s two new stations.
The plan to extend the LRT-2 to Antipolo was part of the Master Plan for Metro Manila in 1999 — under the Metro Manila Urban Integration Study (MMUTIS). The project was approved by the NEDA Board on September 4, 2012, and construction of the viaducts began in April 2015.
The “full blast” construction of the new stations with a contract amount of PHP 1.1 billion began on February 20, 2017. However, the contract worth PHP 3.4 billion for electromechanical systems was awarded on December 14, 2018.
Source: DOTr
