(Eagle News) — Work on the Metro Rail Transit-7 depot formally started on Tuesday, Nov. 26, after nearly two years of court hearings and appeals to obtain a site, the Department of Transportation said.
In a statement, the DOTr said this was after the writs of possession issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 92 and 98 in favor of the agency and its concessionaire, SMC Mass Rail Transit 7, Inc. (SMRT7), were successfully enforced by the respective court sheriffs.
The writs issued by the courts on Nov. 22 and Nov. 25 stemmed from the expropriation cases filed by the DOTr and SMRT7, through the Office of the Solicitor General, against the owners of the depot site along Quirino Highway in Barangay Lagro, Quezon City, who had refused the government’s offer to purchase the site at current market value.
The DOTr had said the appraisal of the property, owned largely by a major real estate development company, had been done by a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-accredited independent property appraiser.
“The start of depot works signifies much more than a dot in the timeline of the project. It shows us that when the judiciary work hand in hand with the executive department, we are able to pick up speed in delivering infrastructure development to the Filipino people,” Transportation Secretary Art Tugade said.
The MRT-7 is a 23-kilometer railway with 13 stations that will connect San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan with North Avenue in Quezon City.
The DOTr has said travel time from point to point would be reduced to about 34 minutes.
The agency added the line, which is expected to ferry between 300,000 to 850,000 passengers per day, will be connected to the Light Rail Transit-1, MRT-3, and the Metro Manila Subway at the Common Station in North Avenue.
As of October 2019, the MRT-7 project is 49.15% complete.
The DOTr said it is scheduled to begin partial operations in 2021.
