Osmeña to carry out ambitious road project

CEBU CITY — Mayor Tomas Osmeña is pushing through his planned multibillion-peso circumferential road project and is just waiting for the opportunity to present the plan to prospective financiers.

This, he said, explains his reluctance to pursue the proposed Guadalupe-Lahug road link project hatched by his predecessor, Alvin Garcia.

Osmeña said his circumferential road project will integrate a road link between Guadalupe and Lahug so it will not be necessary to have a similar project of limited scope.

Osmeña initially drew flak when it was learned he had wavered about pursuing Garcia’s Guadalupe-Lahug road link plan.

M. Velez-Escario is currently the only existing road link between the two points and a bottleneck ensues at the provincial capitol where it merges with Osmeña Boulevard and other secondary roads.

Osmeña, however, said he recognizes the problem so he is now waiting for an opportunity to present his plan to potential financiers.

The new plan will not just incorporate a road link between Guadalupe and Lahug but will make it possible for people farther south to turn at Pardo to enter the circumferential road and travel all the way to Banilad in just 10 to 15 minutes.

The circumferential road was to be one of the three components of the Metro Cebu Development Project (MCDP) III financed by soft loans from the Japan’s Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.

In 1995, when Osmeña was serving the last year of his first two terms as mayor, a P10-billion loan was approved for MCDP III.

Then, Osmeña, however, did away with the circumferential road project and instead pushed for the financing of the two other components of MCDP III: the south reclamation project and the coastal highway.

Except for horizontal infrastructure development, the reclamation project is virtually finished, while the Department of Public Works and Highways still has to complete the coastal highway.

In 1995, the circumferential road project was estimated to cost P5 billion. With the weakening of the peso, it is now expected to cost P6-7 billion. — Freeman News Service