DOTC awards contract for survey to help metro decongestion

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has tapped a joint venture firm to conduct a survey that would help develop a public transportation improvement plan for Metro Manila and the adjoining provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan.

In a notice to proceed, DOTC undersecretary Julianito Bucayan Jr. instructed Woodfields Consultants Inc. and GHD Pty Ltd. to start the Metro Manila Urban Transportation Integrated Study (MMUTIS) Update and Capacity Enhancement Project (MUCEP) survey.

“The MUCEP survey shall commence upon the receipt of this notice,” Bucayan told Woodfields Consultants representative Julius Francisco.

The joint venture of Woodfields Consultants and GHY offered to undertake the survey at a cost of P33.988 million.

The tandem bested four other shortlisted bidders that included Sustainable Development Solutions, TCGI Engineers, Urban Integrated Consultants Inc., and Syconsult Inc.

The budget for the contract would be sourced from the agency’s 2012 Transport Studies Fund.

The project includes a household interview survey to get information from residents to better understand the actual socio-economic conditions and travel characteristics or passenger trip patterns of respondents.

The survey, which would also consider the opinion on transport development of the respondents, would be used to support the ongoing update of the database of the 1996 MMUTIS.

“Toward this end, the DOTC will fund a household interview survey which aims to capture current traffic conditions based on passenger trip patterns and to get public opinion on traffic development,” the DOTC said.

The DOTC is rebidding the contract after a failed bidding in November 2012. Companies that were shortlisted in the bidding last year included Sustainable Development Solutions, Woodfields Consultants Inc. and GHD Pty Ltd, TCGI Engineers, and Lichel Technologies Inc.

The DOTC said the transportation database for Metro Manila was developed MMUTIS in 1996 and has to be updated to support the development of traffic forecasts to be used in developing a public transportation plan for Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan.

A study published by the National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS) revealed that losses from traffic congestion in Metro Manila alone amounted to P137.5 billion in 2011. This brought to P1.5 trillion the total losses over the past 11 years due to traffic congestion excluding the P4.5 billion losses from fuel consumption.

 The financial losses are mostly on productivity as transport of goods and services are delayed due to bad traffic. The study only covered traffic congestion losses of five occupations, particularly government officials, professionals, technicians, clerical workers, and service workers.

The Aquino administration is pursuing projects that would help decongest the metropolis of heavy traffic to bring down the losses as the same time reduce the transportation cost particularly for the poor.