In his annual report on his first year at the Santo Domingo Metro and Skylift Office (Opret), director general Antonio Santos Perez announced major savings in contracting and new projects underway as the modernization plans are implemented by the new administration.
Santos Perez in a YouTube video reports on the expansion of Line One of the Santo Domingo Metro so that it can operate with six cars instead of three as today and meet the greater demand. He said that the expansion works are carried out during the off-work hours (from 11pm to 5am) to not affect users and that the project will “soon” be completed.
Moreso, Santos Perez reported transparency and austerity actions implemented by the new administration have reduced the arrears with the foreign companies that provide maintenance services. Likewise, the contracts have been renegotiated with the electrical contractors for savings of 27% and 46% for track maintenance when compared to the past administration. He said that overall savings are RD$498,661,524 million.
He also mentioned the Opret had savings of RD$129,590,021 in the acquisition of eight detachable trains of three cars when compared to the contracts signed during the past administration.
He said the new authorities determined that the extension of Line One from Km 9 of Duarte Highway to Los Alcarrizos in northern Santo Domingo should be next. The Metro authorities have decided to build an 800m tunnel that connects to a 7.5 km overpass. The project encompasses opening five stations to serve more than one million people that live and commute on this route. Santos Perez said this expansion would be the less costly in the history of the Santo Domingo Metro.
The director of Opret reports that the Santo Domingo Metro and Skylift serviced 59.8 million users for the first year of the Abinader administration. The number of users is 43% less than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. He announced that the number of users is now at 70% of the Metro capacity. When schools and universities are fully open for on-site teaching, the Metro will have returned to 100% operation.
Other service improvements include placing digital clocks with the real-time arrival times of the Metro cars, the Metro Escucha campaign to interact with Metro users on social media, and Whatsapp Business platform for prompt response to users. Work is advanced on a Metro APP and website platform so that users can recharge fares online.
He said five recycling machines have been placed and so far, 40,000 plastic bottles have been eliminated from trash bins as part of the Metro commitment to the environment. He said the Metro has also been installing solar energy at the stations.
25 August 2021