Council seeking aid for Kalunasan road

The city council is asking financial support from the national government for the development of a one-kilometer road in barangay Kalunasan to open a road network to two other barangays and further decongest traffic in the area.

Because the city government's funds have been allocated to its preparations for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Summit next month, the council said that no funds are available for the development of the road.

Together with the agreement with the private landowners to donate a substantial portion of their properties for the development of a road network, funding is necessary because the landowners reportedly wanted the immediate development of the road.

Through a resolution penned by councilor Joey Daluz, the council said the road network is important because once developed, it would provide access to and from barangay Guadalupe in the south and barangay Lahug in the north and decongest traffic in major thoroughfares.

Likewise, the road artery would also connect barangay Kalunasan to barangays Sapangdaku and Capitol Site and "could cut travel time and cost and spur development." The subject area extends from the Harlemmermeer Bridge to the Kalunasan Elementary School.

The council said the sitios in barangay Kalunasan that would be affected by the road network already hosts a number of households and subdivisions that clamor for better roads.

With the area undeveloped, the school children in barangay Kalunasan also experience too much exposure to dust during sunny days and mud during rainy days.

A number of accidents involving motorcycles-for-hire and their passengers have been recorded during the rainy season when the roads are muddy and slippery and are very risky to traverse.

The council said because the stretch of the road remains undeveloped, it is constantly muddied since the waste from a busted sewer would flow through the road, making it more dangerous to motorists and pedestrians. - Joeberth M. Oca