No stopping Cebu bus rapid system

CEBU CITY – The city government is determined to implement the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project despite public concern that it will mean the uprooting of more than 2,100 trees along the bus route.

The BRT is meant to ease traffic congestion in the city and in the long run will benefit everyone, said BRT Project Manager Rafael Yap.

“A project as large as Cebu BRT project is bound to have its supporters and also critics. We can’t please everybody but we will try as much as we can to listen to their concerns and look for ways to address these concerns,” Yap said.

He linked the worsening traffic in Metro Cebu to the rise in the number of vehicles.

This year, car usage in Cebu was up by 36.8 percent, Yap said.

At least 1,900 of the trees will be preserved, particularly indigenous and fruit-bearing trees, through earth-balling. The rest will be cut down.

Yap said the city and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will develop nurseries in 10 barangays to culture seedlings that will replace the trees affected by the BRT project.

The 16-kilometer BRT system will run from Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Barangay Bulacao to Gov. M. Cuenco Avenue in Barangay Talamban.

It will have 33 stations with 176 buses, and is expected to be operational in two years. (Janine Anne D. Bustamante and Jessiel E. Dayday)