MaCea hopeful Makati bus system approved next yr

A GROUP of property owners in the Makati Central Business District (CBD) is hopeful that their proposal to put up a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system within the city will be approved by early next year.

“We are in constant communication with the Department of Transportation. If they have organized their implementing rules and regulations this year, then perhaps the approval of the project can happen early next year,” Jonathan David, general manager of the Makati Commercial Estate Association (MaCea), told in an interview last Friday.

The proposed BRT will connect the MRT-3 (Metro Rail Transit-3) Ayala Station to the LRT1 (Light Rail Transit-1) Buendia Station, starting from the corner of EDSA and Ayala Avenue and traversing Ayala Avenue, turning left at Gil Puyat and ending at the LRT Line 1 Buendia Station along Taft Avenue.

“The plan was to connect it all the way to Pasay but it will not push through. It will just be up to Buendia,” David said, without elaborating.

The project is estimated to cost P800 million and aims to decongest traffic along EDSA. Completion is expected within two to three years from the start of construction.

“This is to make bus movements faster along Ayala. Like trains, they will just be given 15 to 20 minutes, then they have to go,” David said.

The project is an unsolicited proposal from MaCea and Ayala Land Inc., together with the local government unit of Makati under the government’s public-private partnership scheme.

“Maybe we will talk with the government of Pasay to connect it there. But once this project is approved, we will already start with the said portion in Makati,” David said.