SM cool to 2 common rail hubs

SM cool to 2 common rail hubs

Manila, Philippines: The SM Group is lukewarm on the proposal of the Transportation Department to build two common light rail stations near North Avenue in Quezon City as a compromise deal with SM and Ayala Land Inc.

“We have an agreement with them [Transportation Department and Light Rail Transit Authority] and we hope they will honor the agreement we had in 2009. The  temporary restraining order issued by Supreme Court validates the position of SM Group,” SM Prime Holdings Inc. chief finance officer Jeffrey Lim told reporters at the sidelines of a forum organized by ING and the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines at Makati Shangri-La Hotel Wednesday.

SM Prime earlier sued the Transportation Department and LRTA for allegedly breaching the contract on the location of the proposed P1.4-billion common station. The two agencies wanted to transfer the site of the common station from SM North Edsa as specified under the 2009 contract to Ayala Land-owned TriNoma shopping.

The Supreme Court issued a stay order on the government’s plan to transfer the common station to TriNoma, which affected the awarding of the LRT 1 Cavite extension project to the consortium of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

Lim said the company had no details yet of the proposed “mini station” that the Transportation Department wanted to be built in front of SM North Edsa shopping mall.

SM Prime legal counsel Ryan San Juan said in a statement the company was standing pat on its position the government should honor the 2009 agreement.

“We have not received any specific proposal from the DoTC and cannot comment on that matter.  We only got to know about the DoTC plan from the media. Our position, as expressed in our statement last week, and in the cases we filed, thus stands,” San Juan said.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya on Tuesday proposed the construction of two common stations, one at SM North Edsa and another one at TriNoma shopping mall of Ayala Land, as a win-win solution to break the deadlock.

Under the proposal, the common station at SM North Edsa would link LRT Line 1 and the upcoming MRT Line 7 while the common station at TriNoma would interconnect LRT1 and MRT Line 3.

Source: Manila Standard Today