A major project in the pipeline could significantly change transportation in the Dominican Republic. It is the public initiative of the Santo Domingo Metropolitan Train, to initiate the bidding processes to start the works.
The plan was presented by the Office for the Development of Urban and Interurban Mobility Projects, the executing agency of the projects developed by the Trust for the Development of the Mass Transportation System of the Dominican Republic (FITRAM).
According to local newspaper El Caribe, the handing over of the documentation was headed by Minister of the Presidency Joel Santos Echavarría, the director of the Office of Urban and Interurban Mobility Projects and FITRAM, Jhael Isa, and the executive director of the DGAPP, Sigmund Freund, who received the initiative.
Initiative Details
According to the procedure of Law 47-20, the proposal will be heard by the National Council of Public-Private Partnership (CNAPP), so that, once the declaration of public interest is issued, the structuring of the initiative and the competitive process for the awarding of the contract will proceed.
The Santo Domingo Metropolitan Train is established, in its first stage, as a means of mass public transportation with a capacity for 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction, from the Olympic Center to the Las Americas International Airport, with an extension of 32 kilometers and 20 stations.
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The objective is to complement the Integrated Transportation System (SIT) which, together with the subway, the two cable car lines and the OMSA buses, will be able to transport close to one million people per day.
This is one of the most important works, since it will connect the National District from the Olympic Center, with Santo Domingo East, to Ave. Charles de Gaulle Ave. in a first stage, for a total route that will extend to the International Airport of the Americas.
It will be 32 kilometers long, of which 22 kilometers will be at ground level, 10 kilometers will be underground and elevated. The Metropolitan Train user will be able to travel in 30 minutes on a route that currently takes about two hours.
The supervision of the construction of the project will be under the responsibility of FITRAM, a unit that will assume such management once the bidding process is completed and the winning bidder is selected.
