Senate set to resume hearings on MRT-3 rehabilitation

Following an inspection of the prototype coaches from China early this month, the sub-committee of the Senate public services panel headed by Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares will once again look into the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) timetable and the progress of the agency's planned rehabilitation of the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3).

Poe said she will resume the public hearing before the end of the month and check if the DOTC is meeting its targets which it presented during the Senate public hearings last February.

“The DOTC cannot bungle this. It should ensure that the new train cars will be delivered on time, that the elevators and escalators will work, and even the comfort rooms will be functional," Poe said in a statement.

"Our workforce, majority of whom take mass transport, should not have to endure the current conditions longer than they should,” she stressed.

1.2 billion invested so far Poe noted that the government has already spent 50 million for the procurement of 12 elevators for various MRT stations, 90 million for one lot OCS Road-Rail Vehicle for maintenance activities, 167 million for one lot rail grinder to repair the damaged MRT-3 tracks and 900 million for the total replacement and upgrade of the signaling system to meet capacity extension.

“That is 1.2 billion in taxpayer’s money that the DOTC is spending. Commuters are well within their rights to demand that what needs to be fixed will be fixed, and the repairs and upgrades will be done on time,” Poe said.

According to the DOTC, some 4.2 billion is required for the rail system’s threeyear maintenance.

Poe noted during her last inspection that most of the MRT’s trains and tracks have broken down due to wear-and-tear, with some 650,000 people taking the MRT daily, almost twice its capacity of 350,000.