Development board eyes Aerial Ropeway Transit

The Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB) has passed a resolution in its full council meeting last Sept. 24 endorsing the Aerial Ropeway Transit (ART) as one of the solutions to traffic congestion.

MCDCB Communications and Stakeholder Relationship Manager Carol Ballesteros said the resolution will be forwarded to the Regional Development Council (RDC), chaired by international designer Kenneth Cobonpue, who is mandated to approve projects in Central Visayas.

Ballesteros said the MCDCB passed the resolution in the meeting attended by mayors and representatives of 13 local government units (LGUs) in Metro Cebu, heads of national government agencies (NGAs), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The resolution is vital in attracting investors to finance the ART through public-private partnership (PPP).

In an interview, Engr. Fortunato Sanchez Jr. and his daughter engineer Kim Sanchez, said ART is a successful mode of mass transit in other countries, such as in Bolivia, and runs about 22 kms. per hour, passing over buildings in a metropolis.

He said the government must support this kind of mass transit and build ART stations and invite foreign investors to implement it.

Sanchez said this is new technology which has been used since 2004 in Medellin, Colombia. But the most successful ART is located in La Paz, Bolivia with eight ART lines. It will add three more lines in the next three years.

Sanchez said they have already presented the project to the RDC’s Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) chaired by Glenn Soco.