The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of National Defense (DND) on Friday (December 4, 2020), virtually signed the Right-of-Way Usufruct Agreement (ROW UA) covering five real estate properties of the DND to be expropriated for the first phase of the P355.6-billion Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP).

This covers five Subway Stations - the North Avenue Station, East Avenue Station, Camp Aguinaldo Station, Lawton Station and the Senate-DepEd Station, according to DOTr Undersecretary Timothy John Batan.

Correspondingly, the DND-AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) camps and facilities which falls under the ROW UA include the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and Golf Course, the AFP Medical Center (formerly known as the V. Luna Hospital), Camp Aguinaldo, Fort Bonifacio and Villamor Air Base.

The area under the DOTr-DND partnership totals 50,000 square meters for the Station Works, 60,000 square meters for the Interstation Tunneling Works and 55,000 square meters for Temporary Works.

These are the numbers that demonstrate the scale of the partnership meant to delivery one of the most ambitious projects of the Build Build Build Program, Usec. Batan pointed out.

Spanning 34-kilometers with 17 stations from Valenzuela to NAIA Terminal 3 and FTI, the Metro Manila

Subway Project will reduce travel time from Quezon City to NAIA Terminal 3 from 1 hour and 10 minutes to just 35 minutes.

In its first year of full operations, the Subway is expected to carry up to 370,000 passengers per day, with capacity for expansion to more than 1 million passengers per day in the years to come.

The Right-of-Way Usage Agreement allows DOTr to fast track its access to construction and work sites needed for the the Subway.

In addition, it gives DND and the AFP a "recurring resource" benefit members of the armed forces, he noted.

In the short term, DOTr will replicate affected DND-AFP structures and facilities, constructing 192 units of armed forces housing in Camp Aguinaldo.

In the same way, the DOTr will replicate and improve affected facilities of the Veterans Golf Course.

In the short to long term, DOTr will pay DND-AFP a recurring annual usufruct fee of 10% of latest Zonal Value and 5% of gross non-farebox revenues of the concerned Subway Stations.

The DOTr wants to fast-track the project so the subway can be partially operational by December, 2021, instead of the original target date of February, 2022, according to Transport Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.

The partial operations will be for its first three stations from Valenzuela – Mindanao Avenue Station, Tandang Sora Station, and North Avenue Station, while the entire rail line will be fully operational by 2025.