CITOM to field more men in Banilad as classes start

The City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) will be fielding more men in the Banilad area starting next week in preparation for the school opening.

The presence of more CITOM men is seen as one of the ways to help alleviate the traffic congestion brought about by the construction of the Banilad-Talamban flyover.

CITOM executive director Arnel Tancinco said his office would assign about 20 more personnel to man the traffic at Mariano Cuenco Avenue. At present, there are some 50 traffic enforcers deployed in the area, he added.

“Through the instructions of the mayor, we will deploy more traffic personnel to commensurate the traffic at the construction site,” he said. “We will deploy 20 more enforcers in the area, depending on the situation of the traffic.”

CITOM will also remind the officials of the schools in the vicinity of Banilad of the Oplan Balik Eskwela of the city government, which CITOM is one of the members.

With the expected rise in the number of passengers, because of the opening of classes and the construction of the flyover project, Tancinco said the volume of traffic along Mariano Cuenco Avenue would surely increase.

Many of the schools have scheduled to start their classes on June 9.

On the other hand, Tancinco said that based on their last meeting with the Department of Public Works and Highways and WTG Construction and Development Corp., the contractor of the flyover, if negotiations with lot owners succeed, road widening would be implemented by first week of June.

But Tancinco said that he is not worried about the traffic congestion, because the private car owners themselves are the ones who avoid the traffic by not passing in the area, especially during peak hours. 

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has earlier commended CITOM for doing a good job in managing the traffic situation in Banilad despite the closure of the two lanes of the road due to the construction of the flyover.

At the start of the flyover construction last February, 75 traffic enforcers were deployed in Banilad that was later increased to almost 100 in March.

But Tancinco said that they have cut down the number to about half because they were already able to contain the traffic in the area. – Wenna A. Berondo/NLQ