DOTC may award BRT design contract by Dec.

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications has come up with a shortlist of bidders for the detailed engineering design for the first phase of Cebu’s P10.6 billion Bus Rapid Transit system.

“By December, siguro ma-award na namin. We have now a shortlist,” said DOTC Asst. Secretary Sherielysse Bonifacio who was in Cebu yesterday for the joint seminar on Urban Transportation Systems in Metro Cebu of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan.

Bonifacio spoke on “Urban Transportation Policy in the Philippines.”

The detailed engineering design will identify and quantify all essential works needed for the implementation of the BRT. The detailed engineering design and procurement for construction services will last eight months while the actual project implementation will take at least two years to finish.

The BRT project, which will be implemented in three phases, was approved by the National Economic Development Authority board chaired by President Benigno Aquino III last May 29. It is expected to be operational in early 2017.

The BRT, a bus system where segregated lanes are made exclusive for the buses is seen to help ease traffic congestion, provide fast, comfortable and cost-effective mobility and to ease the transportation problem in Cebu City.

Earlier, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board recorded over 2,600 jeepney drivers of 1,310 units are plying 90 PUJ routes. At least 22 PUJ routes are reportedly to be restructured once the BRT is in place.

More or less 240 long buses will be deployed to serve 14 designated stations from Bulacao to Talamban.

The buses will occupy the Cebu City’s major thoroughfares, including N. Bacalso Avenue, Osmeña Boulevard, N. Escario Street and Governor Cuenco Avenue, where jeepneys also ply their routes. – (FREEMAN)