Fate of BRT project to be decided today

Construction workers continue work on the N. Bacalso underpass in Mambaling for the BRT project. CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

THE fate of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) will be determined today, Wednesday, during the National Economic and Development Authority – Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA – ICC) meeting.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday wrote the NEDA-ICC urging it to intervene in the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) recommendation to scrap the BRT project.

The DOTr’s recommendation, dated April 11, 2018, was signed by Transportation Secretary Arturo Tugade and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino.

The four-page letter written by the mayor also included his comments debunking the findings of the Inter-Department Task Force of the DOTr which cited narrow roads, costs of delays, underutilized funds, and growth in the number of vehicles on the road that will render the BRT irrelevant if implemented.

“These are hardly reasons for the cancellation of the project. The solution of the delays is to fast-track the implementation, not cancel the project,” Osmeña stated in his letter.

He also said that the BRT would address the increase of vehicles plying the roads of Cebu City, and that narrow roads were already taken into consideration since the project was formulated.

‘It is not a new condition that justifies the re-evaluation of the project. BRT works, even on narrow roadways. A good example is the successful BRT in Mexico City, that operates efficiently in many European cities with narrow roadways that were built centuries ago,” said Osmeña.

On the other hand, DOTr has not proposed any alternative to the BRT should NEDA – ICC cancel the project.

But according to Osmeña, the agency’s proposal to cancel the BRT was to give way to the P155-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) proposed by a Chinese-led consortium.

“Don’t throw a ghost project as a replacement (of the BRT). That’s an insult to the people of Cebu. There’s no feasibility study,” he told reporters in a press conference yesterday.

But as judgment day of the BRT draws near, more groups have expressed support for its implementation.

In a statement sent to reporters yesterday, the Cebu Urban Poor Alliance said. “The BRT will improve urban mobility and access to transport for low-income families, thus an effective mass transport for the urban poor. (It is also) cost-effective and will help address environmental problems as it is an alternative way to mitigate carbon emissions,” the group said.

Last Monday, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Cebu’s largest business organization, also said cancelling the BRT project is not a solution to the growing traffic congestion in Cebu.

They supported the implementation of the BRT but suggested widening of existing roads.

Some Cebu City councilors however, welcomed the LRT project. Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia authored a resolution expressing the council’s support for the LRT project.

But after several discussions during their regular session yesterday, Garcia decided to withdraw his proposal to add some points raised by the DOTr.

“I’ll be reintroducing it together with the findings stated on the DOTr’s recommendation letter,” he told reporters.