The Caloocan City Local Inter-Agency Committee (LIAC) overseeing the relocation of families affected by the North and Southrail Linkages project said it has successfully cleared the city segment of the right of way for the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

At Thursday’s turnover ceremony, Mayor Enrico "Recom" Echiverri, LIAC chairman, said 8.5 kilometers of the right-of-way linkage for the PNR from Maypajo to Sangandaan had been cleared.

The turnover was attended by Vice President Noli de Castro, officials of the National Housing Authority (NHA) and PNR general manager Manuel D. Andal.

Echiverri said the LIAC supervised the clearing, relocation and resettlement of informal occupants within the PNR right-of-way to pave the way for the modernization of the country's railways system.

He said the city government was able to facilitate the in-city relocation of some 1,959 families living beside the PNR tracks without a single complaint of human rights violation during the two-year ordeal.

“I am very pleased to note that the LIAC was successful in its goals to clear the PNR rights-of-way of informal settler families and deliver all needed basic services and programs to qualified beneficiaries prior to rehabilitation of the railway system,” he said.