Today marks a momentous occasion for the country’s progress in the infrastructure of road transportation as Department of Transportation (DOTr) together with Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) and Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) combined its effort to lead and start the full-blast construction of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension project at the Barangay San Dionisio in Parañaque City.

As part of the administration’s ambitious Build, Build, Build infrastructure modernization program, the 11.7-kilometer railway extension project aims to connect the province of Cavite to Metro Manila through a railway network. It features eight (8) new train stations, five (5) of which will be partially operational by the end of 2021.

In a press statement, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Usec TJ Batan, said, “Eighteen years, eight months, and thirteen days. It has been eighteen years, eight months, and thirteen days since the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project was approved by the NEDA’s Investment Coordination Committee on August 25, 2000, and it has been seventeen years, three months, and sixteen days since the NEDA Board approved the Implementing Agreement for the project on January 22, 2002.”
“It took a Mayor from Davao, from 1,500 kilometers South of Metro Manila, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, his classmate from Cagayan, from 500 kilometers North of Metro Manila, Secretary Arthur Tugade, and a strong-willed retired police general, LRTA Administrator Reynaldo Berroya, to finally get us to today, when all components of this long-awaited, and much-needed project are finally in place,” adds Batan.

Once fully operational by 2023, travel time from Bacoor, Cavite to Baclaran will substantially drop from 1 hour and 10 minutes to just 25 minutes.

According to DOTr, the Cavite Extension Project will increase the number of stations from 20 to 28. It will reduce travel time and expected to increase LRT-1’s daily ridership from 500,000 to 800,000 passengers per day.
“With today’s ceremony for LRT-1 Cavite Extension, we at the DOTr, under the strong leadership of our Secretary Arthur Tugade, are happy to report that all multi-decade pending projects that we found ourselves catching up on, are finally in full motion,” adds Usec Batan.
*Primary Photo courtesy of Wkipedia