Guangzhou Guidao Traffic Construction Supervision Limited Company, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Metro Group, has been awarded the contract to design and construct Macao’s Light Rapid Transit (LRT) East Line, with the group receiving the news from local authorities last Thursday.
The contract is worth more than MOP 330 million, with the 7.65-kilometre LRT East Line to connect the Barrier Gate border checkpoint and the Taipa Ferry Terminal in Pac On via the Zone A and Zone E land reclamation areas, spanning six stations, TDM reported.
The entire LRT East Line project’s total cost is estimated at around MOP 20 billion patacas and it will take six years to complete the project.
The Guangzhou Metro Group said its subsidiary is responsible for “providing management and technical assistance, including for project design and the management of the construction works”.
Meanwhile, the Macao government has not officially announced about the Guangdong company being awarded with works in the future East Line of the Macao LRT.
According to Macao Light Rapid Transit Corporation Limited, the East Line will have Macao’s first underwater tunnel, which will be operational regardless of the weather conditions affecting the city.
The East Line is one of four new rail lines scheduled to be running across the city by 2028. The other three new LRT lines – namely the Taipa-Barra section, Seac Pai Van section and Macao-Hengqin section – are scheduled to be completed by 2025. When these four projects are completed, Macao’s LRT network will have reached about 24 kilometres.
In May this year, Transport Bureau Director Kelvin Lam Hin San predicted that by 2030, daily LRT passenger traffic is expected to have increased from an average of 2,880 passengers per day in 2020 to 137,000 passengers per day, with the government estimating Macao’s population to reach 791,000 in 2030.
Currently Macao’s population stands at around 649,000.
