Hipocrito Mejia said:
NALs, I'll agree to your assumptions used to give an idea, but not anything else.
Based on cost over runs for projects in DR and elsewhere, your $1.6B will easily turn into $2.5B. An amount that would do wonders in areas that are of much higher priority.
You can not compare AILA or POP to an entire metro system which includes powering trains, terminal buildings, tunnels and signals. The airports can run on generators if needed, and you couldn't run the metro with the power needed to run both airports combined.
On the issue of government expenditure on this project, my point is that the government will never stop dumping money into it and any intelligent person knows it. The point is that it's not how much, but that it will never end. Or are we supposed to believe the fairy tale concocted by Diandino and crew, that not only will it operate without government subsidies, but that it will eventually generate profits to pay back the original expense?
Response to "Dark Red":
Yes it could easily double, but we don't know the actual figures yet because in order for this to be done we need to know the length of the two additional lines, the number of stations the lines will have, etc.
That is info that not even the metro contenders at the palacio nacional know about, yet.
Let's wait and see as this project continue to go along.
Considering what is of higher priority... well that is subject to personal opinions. The truth is that the DR has many things covering everything from infrastructure to health care which have a high priority.
The problem is that there is not enough money to fix everything at once, but a society can't function if travelling becomes a living hell, especially at the economic and political center of the entire nation.
Like I said in previous response on this thread, let's be thankful that this is not a monument or something of the sort. This at least has the potential to actually help people and not just the pocket books of some people.
Regarding what's on Green:
Actually I can. The reason lines in the following reasoning:
The airports such as AILA and POP are government owned. Right now they have been basically leased by Aerodom, which is being operated by Grupo Abrisa, owned by the Hazoury family. However, being that those facilities are government owned, the Dominican government has managed to keep the lightbulbs on!
This is considering that the airports are connected to the national electric grid, which is in a horrible state. The reasons for such horrible electric service boils down to two main reasons out of many small ones:
1. Lack of payment from many delinquent customers
2. Faulty wiring, much of it being tampered by everyday people who tag their illegal lines to the grid and suck paid electricity out of the grid to power their electrified shacks without having to pay a dime for the service.
Having those things in mind, the airports still manage to have electricity 24/7.
Now, let's take a look at the metro project. This system will be have it's own electrical output. The system is mostly underground, which means that the wiring will also be done underground in the tunnels, making it harder if not impossible for everyday people to simply tap into this enclosed electric grid.
Given that the system will be separate from the national grid and the enclosed electric grid for the metro will not be easy for everyday people to tag their illegal lines and steal electricity, whatever electricity produced within that enclosed grid will remain in the grid itself!
Now, let's take other aspect of the electricity problem into account. The reason why the main grids in the country experience outages is NOT due to a lack of petroleum or a DEFICIT in producing megawatts. In fact, the DR has the capacity to produce more megawatts than it actually consumes and extremely few times has the system experienced outages due to scarcity in petroleum or coal or natural gas.
This means that the enclosed electric grid of the metro will not only receive the petroleum or coal or natural gas (whatever the power plants for the system will use) but it will have a constant flow of electricity due to a lack of theft from the general population. This will be a self contained electric grid, not too different from what the airports of the countries are experiencing.
The biggest difference is that the airports function on the national grid and when that fails the generators take over. The metro will function on a grid all of its own, which if electricity theft from that separate grid does not occurs, would be fluent 24/7.
Regarding what's on Purple:
The only metro system in the world that produces a profit is the metro of Hong Kong. The sole reason is because of the high usage of the metro by the inhabitants of that city.
Now, we all know that some of things politicians say is on the mark and other things is nothing more than mere politics.
However, we have to keep in mind Leonel's desire for the country and the capital city in particular. If anything, the metro could be an indirect message to the population of what's to come to Santo Domingo in terms of urban development.
In order for the metro to become profitable, it needs a constant large flow of people to use the system. Only by increasing the density level of the city will such increase occur. Increases in density levels can be created by encouraging and promoting high density real estate projects (ie. apartment towers, office towers, etc). The way development is occuring in Santo Domingo, particularly what has happened to Naco and Piantini, it could very well be that the government has a plan to turn Santo Domingo into a premier urban economic center that spans influence beyond the national territory.
If you notice the types of projects being endorsed by Leonel, regardless if the projects are public ventures or private, they all point towards high density development.
From the Sans Souci projects (it's mostly apartment towers), to the increasing density of central areas of the city such as Naco/Piantini, neighborhoods that were solid single family upper middle class homes and today houses are a rarity among the forest of apartment/office towers.
The metro could very well be a small part of a grand masterplan to turn Santo Domingo into something it has never been before.
Afterall, remember the famous quote Leonel once made "I want to turn Santo Domingo into a mini-New York". For better or worse.
-NALs
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