PB to receive updates on Trans-Axial project

A progress report on the multi-billion Cebu Trans-Axial Development Project will be presented today at the Provincial Board’s regular session.

Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr., the brain behind this project, said the PB must be updated with the project, which will be undertaken under a build-operate-transfer scheme.

Less than a month from now, or on April 20, interested investors will submit to the provincial panel their respective bids. The notice of award has been tentatively scheduled for April 28. Construction is expected to start next year, and to be finished by 2013.

Sanchez said the winning bidder will be chosen on its ability to develop all components of the highways, without disregarding concerns for the protection and conservation of the environment within and around the project area. The project will tap at least 120 rivers in Cebu as water sources.

There have been so far six investors who have expressed interest in the P45 billion project, which has four components: Wind development, water development, economic zones development, and agro-environmental development.

One of these investors is Quantum International, an American-based company, whose president Al Johnson recently said his company has been very keen on wind power development. The firm planned to put up wind farms in three strategic areas along the proposed highway.

Other investors are the United Engineers of Malaysia, the Iranian government, the Dubai World, and one each from China and Singapore.

A 300-kilometer four-lane highway will be built at an estimated cost of P13 billion. Two-hundred-twenty kilometers of this stretch cover existing roads that only need improvement, while the remaining length of 80 kilometers will be constructed.

At least P440.6 million will be used in the road-right-of-way acquisition along the planned highway, which has been designed to link the towns of Cebu from Santander, the farthest part in the south, to Daanbantayan, the farthest in the north.

Once this highway gets realized, it will cut travel time between north and south by 40 percent, said Sanchez. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/RAE