BRT project a go

The Investment Coordination CommitteeCabinet Committee of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has green lighted anew the P16.3 billion Cebu Bus Rapid Transit project.

“Cebu BRT has been green lighted by ICC to get moving – to be complemented by other modes in due time for an intermodal system,” reads the text message of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia to The FREEMAN yesterday.

Pernia is the co-chairperson of the NEDA ICC-CC.

He said the decision and commitment of NEDA on the city’s BRT is “firm.”

In its meeting yesterday, the NEDA ICC-CC recommended for the mobilization of a Technical Support Consultant for the BRT project.

Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete said the city is thankful to DOTr for considering the instructions of ICC to conduct a technical study on the viability of the project.

“NEDA-ICC has spoken. Pernia said it was green lighted so it’s a go. We should now roll up our sleeves and get back to work and address all the backlogs,” Villarete said.

He said DOTr’s recommendation is to continue the BRT project provided it will be implemented on roads with three lanes.

This means that the project’s first two phases will proceed, but the third phase, which covers the Banilad-Talamban corridor, cannot proceed because the corridor only has two lanes.

RECOMMENDATION

In his July 27, 2018 letter to Pernia, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said the department decided to implement a “Metro Cebu Intermodal and Integrated Transport System (MCIITS), which will include, among others, the CBRT, skytrain project, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Light Rail Transit, greenways project, among others.”

Tugade said the BRT “will be implemented along the length and alignment only deemed feasible by the DOTr, as studies on this integrated and intermodal transportation system is being finalized by the Department.”

Tugade said DOTr commits to fast track the implementation of the project “and that it will immediately engage the services of the Technical Support Consultant (TSC), which will assist in resolving critical sections of the corridor, and in preparing a comprehensive catch-up plan to achieve the project’s Phase 1 interoperability by June 2021.”

On April 24, the NEDA ICC-CC asked DOTr to submit more robust evidence to support the cancellation of the BRT project. It also instructed DOTr to procure the Technical Support Consultant or an independent third party to review the technical design requirements of the project.

DOTr and the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Visayas later released statements that the BRT is included in a “basket of solutions” that would address the traffic woes in Metro Cebu.

DOTr and OPAV plan to incorporate the BRT in the planned Integrated Inter-Modal Transport System (IITS) for Metro Cebu, as long as it will be implemented only on roads with three lanes.

Projects under the IITS include a Point-to-point (P2P) bus system, a monorail in Lapu-Lapu City; a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in three-lane roads, a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system from Carcar to Danao and Mandaue City to the airport in Lapu-Lapu City, and an Intelligent Transportation System.

SUPPORT

Villarete said the Cebu City government will support the components of this “basket of solutions.”

On April 11 this year, Tugade and OPAV chief Michael Dino recommended to cancel the BRT project due to the city’s narrow roads, among other reasons.

“We are very happy that the NEDA-ICC has set aside the April 11 recommendation of DOTr to cancel the Cebu BRT,” Villarete said.

“We were confident it will have favorable results because the project registered a 53.3 percent EIRR in the first place, and approved by the ICC itself, twice. There was no question on our mind on the projects viability and that it will benefit the Cebuanos in the future. Even the World Bank has vouched for the Cebu BRT,” he added.