Cable cars cruising over Metro Manila? It might become a reality soon

Cable cars cruising over Metro Manila? It might become a reality soon

Cable cars cruising over Metro Manila? It might become a reality soon
(Image: IDOM)

Imagine being stuck in Metro Manila traffic then a cable car filled with passengers hovers over you with ease. It sounds fanciful, but it’s getting closer to fruition sooner than we might think.

That’s because the Manila Urban Car Cable Project initiated by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is now up for approval by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) body, as shared by Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during a virtual conference on Friday, June 4. 

Dominguez disclosed the forward step to French Ambassador to the Philippines Michèle Boccoz. In response, Boccoz said that France is amenable to lend a “highly concessional loan” that would help construct the projected P4.8 billion project. 

The European country had already granted the Philippines €450,000, or around P27 million, to conduct a feasibility study back in 2018. 

The study was completed in March 2021 and had already been endorsed by the DOTr to NEDA. It now has to be assessed by NEDA’s Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) before being green-lit, as all proposed infrastructure projects should. Afterward, it will be passed on to the committee’s cabinet sub-committee, before making it to the NEDA Board, which is chaired by the President.

The proposed cable car project has been brewing ever since DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade assumed the post back in 2016. The project plans to pilot a 4.5-kilometer alignment that stretches over the Santolan-Pasig-Eastwood alignment, with the line suggested to start from Marikina City’s Santolan Station of the LRT Line 2 all the way to Ortigas Avenue in Rosario, Pasig City. 

Aside from the two terminal stations, the line will also have stations in Libis, Eastwood, Santolan, and Manggahan, making for six stations in total.

On paper, the cable car system is planned to have a “monocable detachable gondola lift with enclosed 10-seater cabins,” according to a project briefing by the transport ministry. The entire system would be able to ferry 180 cabins in total, and would only take 16 minutes to travel from end to end.

In drafting his proposal, Tugade took cues from Bolivia’s 11-kilometer gondola system, which is deemed the largest cable car system in the world

Do you think the proposed cable car system would help solve traffic in the metro?

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