DOTC: MRT rehab may take four mos

The Metro Rail Transit (MRT 3) shall implement the new distance-base fare scheme effective January 4, 2015 as displayed on Saturday (January 3, 2015) at the MRT station in Pasay City. (PNA photo by Gil S. Calinga)

MANILA — Transport Secretary Jun Abaya on Monday said that the rehabilitation of the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) may still take some three to four months to complete.

Abaya explained during an interview with ANC’s Headstart  that despite the rehabilitation process, they will not shut down the train’s services once the repairs begin.

He, however added that the operations will be shortened on weekends.

“It is merely early closing on a Saturday, meaning instead of closing at 10 p.m. or 10:30, you close at 9, then open late on a Sunday, let’s say at 12 p.m. It’s an early close and a late open, not a shutdown,” he said.

The Transport secretary also revealed their plasof maximizing the closure of the train during the Holy Week season in order to fasten up the completion of the project.

“Based on the reports of MRT-3, it should take us 3 to 4 months to finish,” said Abaya.

Abaya also said that the department is now looking for a new MRT contractor.

“They said the key performance indices are too high because we required them to operate 20 trains during peak hours, and 15 trains during non-peak hours with penalty clauses…So we lowered key performance indices, instead of 15, we made it 12 before penalties would come in and gave them six months as grace, but unfortunately in the second run, also no one showed up. We’re assessing it now to see what needs to be tweaked,” he said.