Metro Cebu is one step closer to having a much-needed drainage master plan to guide solutions to urban flooding
Consultants will be mobilized in Cebu by the second week of July now that a winning bidder was declared to do the P48 million study funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The contract with Woodfields Consultancy Inc. based in Manila is being finalized, said Engr. Nonato Paylado of DPWH 7 during yesterday’s full council meeting of the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Body (MCDCB).
A feasibility study for an integrated flood and drainage system master plan for Metro Cebu was one of the biggest priorities pushed by private sector and government stakeholders for the Mega Cebu vision of well planned urban growth up to 2050.
“Immediately after, the notice of award will be issued to the winning firm,” Paylado told the Mega Cebu board headed by Gov. Hilario Davide III.
The feasibility study is one of 10 flagship projects MCDCB identified in the Road map Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) completed last May.
Other priority projects are construction of the Mactan North Dual-Mode Bridge and Managa II Dam to be implemented between 2015 and 2017.
“There will be proper coordination undertaken by DPWH, the consultants, and MCDCB,” he said.
The study is needed before clear decisions are made of where to invest millions of pesos in civil works for flood control measures, which a few years ago was estimated to require over P600 million for Cebu City alone.
At present, DPWH is undertaking dredging works in the Mahiga Creek to increase its carrying capacity as a flood channel.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) has agreed to conduct a feasibility study for a mass transport system for Metro Cebu.
“We need to establish that study first. We still don’t know whether it’s a Light Rail Transit, a Metro Rail Transit, an AGT or whatever,” explained Dominica Chua, chief operating officer of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI).
AGT stands for Automated Guideway Transit, a driverless, grade-separated transit system where vehicles are automatically guided along a “guideway.”
The LRT and MRT already operate in Metro Manila.
Chua said the DOTC made the commitment for a study in March this year when she, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, and others went to Manila to present the sub-road map study on the mass transport system for Metro Cebu to the DOTC.
“DOTC really said that ‘this is our mandate. We are going to do the study,’” Chua said.
The study for Cebu is already part of the DOTC’s budget for 2016, she said.
The agency will be basing the study on recommendations of consultants of JICA, which said Cebu would benefit from construction of an AGT Line connecting the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-lapu, as well as a 97-kilometer MRT line with 50 stations spanning the whole Metro Cebu.
Gov. Hilario Davide III, chairman of the MCDCB board, said that he was happy to finally be seeing the fruits of the body’s labor.
“We’ve been hoping for a long time that the proposals of JICA will be picked up,” he told reporters.
The MCDCB full council yesterday also endorsed to the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) the JICA’s road map study, with its list of 14 anchor projects and 10 flagship projects.
It will be presented on June 26 to the Regional Development Council 7 for approval before it is elevated to the NEDA board which green-lights foreign-assisted projects and programs.