French agency reassures city gov’t of P2.1B funding for BRT

CEBU, Philippines - Officials of the Agence Francaise de Development, a French funding development agency, has ensured Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday that they will lend the national government P2.1 billion for the construction of the Bus Rapid Transport System in Cebu.

In a courtesy visit yesterday, AFD’s deputy director Yves Guicquero, economist  for Asia Bruno Vindel, incoming country director Christopher Blanchol, country director Luc Le Cabellec, Asia director Gregory Clemente, and project officers in Manila reaffirmed the Cebu City government with the commitment of the French government to help implement the P10.62 billion worth BRT project in the city.

The rest of amount will be funded by the World Bank and the Clean Technology Fund through a multi-lateral loan.

Further, the Regional Development Council has endorsed to the Department of Transportation and Communication the need for additional links on the BRT in order to cater to more passengers.

Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto, the newly installed chairman of RDC, passed a resolution during their recent meeting in Bohol, requesting DOTC to consider the supplementary lanes.

RDC’s priority action agenda is to widen the BRT route with Bulacao-Talisay; Talisay-Cebu City-Mandaue City; Ayala Center-SM-North Bus Terminal; Talisay City-Airport Express; Lapu-lapu City-Cordova; and Talamban-Canduman-Mandaue.

The BRT will cover 16 kilometers and will be built in two phases. The first phase will be from Bulacao to the Cebu Business District, with links to the malls Ayala Center and SM City Cebu, while the second phase will be from Ayala Center to Talamban.

Cebu City Traffic Operations Management executive director Rafael Yap was pleased upon learning about the endorsement of RDC-7.

“We are happy if that’s the case because the initial project only links around 15 kilometers of BRT route. People travel regardless of political boundaries; it doesn’t make sense nga ang atong BRT maundang ra sa boundary sa Cebu City. That’s the hallmark of a good transport system,” Yap said.

The BRT, which will have 33 stations with 176 buses, is expected to serve 330,000 passengers per day.

This though may displace more than 3,000 units of public utility vehicles or more than 6,000 public utility drivers based on the study conducted by the University of the Philippines-National Center for Transportation Studies.

Apart from the additional links, RDC-7 also requested the Department of Public Works and Highways to install traffic lights in selected sections in Lapu-Lapu City like the junction along first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge, junction MLQ and Airport road, Marigondon crossing and Petron Basak.

Likewise, the council wants DPWH to update and push for the formulation for an integrated drainage master plan for Metro Cebu.— /ATO (FREEMAN)