Caloocan residents want additional LRT station

At least 2,000 residents from Bagong Barrio staged a rally along EDSA in Caloocan City yesterday, urging the national government to put up an intermediary Light Rail Transit station in the area as part of the P6.4-billion LRT North Extension project.

“Today, we are united in exercising our power to urge the government and the LRT management that an additional train station would be very beneficial to the commuters of northern Metro Manila,” Roberto Cruz, chairman of Barangay 152, said.

Cruz is one of the officials of 26 barangays that comprise Bagong Barrio who led a 45-minute rally to dramatize their support for Mayor Enrico Echiverri’s petition asking the national government to construct a midway LRT station for the benefit of 500,000 commuters.

Echiverri has been urging the national government as early as September to provide an additional train station in Bagong Barrio as part of the 5.4-kilometer LRT-Metro Rail Transit loop project.

City engineer Rolando Eduria said if an intermediate LRT station is put up in Bagong Barrio, it would benefit not only Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) residents but also commuters coming from Bulacan.

“Bagong Barrio... is a major converging area, it’s also considered as a Priority Development Area (PDA) for national government projects and zonal improvement programs and that includes the LRT-MRT loop project,” Eduria told The STAR.

Eduria said the local government has yet to get a “concrete answer” from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

The DOTC earlier said the LRT-MRT loop project would include the construction of stations beside the end of MRT-3 North Avenue, and two more in Balintawak and Muñoz, all in Quezon City.

According to Eduria, each station would cost at least P500 million to P600 million “but we are requesting even for a smaller one with an estimated cost of only P200 million.”

Echiverri said based on studies conducted by the city planning department, the existing Monumento station – the most accessible in Camanava – would be “very much congested with the expected additional influx of passengers” when the LRT-MRT loop opens.  – Pete Laude, Jerry Botial