But eager with BRT operations
CEBU CITY (Jan. 6, 2024) – The business community in the city is eager about the operation of Cebu BRT this year.
But the same hopes for better mass transit system and much improved road network in the coming years, according to Charles Kenneth C. Co, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).
Though the BRT project has finally been realized 20 years since its conception, businessmen and entrepreneurs look forward to how it would contribute to increase productivity with the improved mobility among the citizenry.
“Having the BRT is better late than never. Let us see how that helps,” Co said when interviewed during the maiden cast of Patigayon Sugbo, a new segment in Sugboanon Channel about the local economy on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024.
Co underscored the need to seriously address the traffic problem in the city as it has taken its toll on people’s productivity.
But he said the business community appreciates Mayor Mike Rama’s efforts to find ways to improve traffic, especially in the Banilad-Talamban corridor, even if these are just immediate and short-term solutions.
Having the BRT is better late than never. Let us see how that helps (but it is) better to have mass transit, like a train system. Once you have too many cars coming into one small area, it will really be difficult for traffic.
CCCI President Kenneth Co
In the longer term, it is “better to have mass transit, like a train system,” Co said, adding “once you have too many cars coming into one small area, it will really be difficult for traffic.”
Having been to Melbourne himself, he confirmed what Mayor Rama and his son Mikel shared upon their return from their family vacation that cars from the outskirts of Melbourne stop in the suburbs and take the tram into the city.
He indicated it would be ideal to Cebu City.
After Rama ascended as mayor in early 2022, he has been open about his dream for a monorail serving city constituents and, from his Melbourne experience, had floated the idea of trams transporting commuters in city centers.
Circumferential road
Meanwhile, the CCCI president said he looks forward to the realization of the Mayor’s plan to establish a 4-lane circumferential from South Road Properties (SRP) through Tisa, Guadalupe, Lahug towards SM City Cebu.
“We do need these alternative routes. This can help decongest the traffic,” he said, noting that it would divert traffic in Ayala area and the busy Escario St. and Gen. Maxilom Ave.
He appreciated the support of the developer of Monterrazas de Cebu for undertaking the segment from Banawa Elementary School towards Quijada St. until the corner of V. Rama Ave. through public-private partnership (PPP).
He hoped other developers or contractors would do the same with the other segments of the planned circumferential road.
Mayor Rama had asked the D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DCMI) Group to assume a segment of the road, especially along the portion where it will develop Kalea Heights in Labangon-Banawa area.
During one of his investment marketing missions in the second half of 2022, DMCI Holdings, Inc. chairman and president Isidro “Sid” A. Consunji assured Rama his team will study and may consider pursuing the project.
The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) designed the circumferential road to start in the south from SRP near NuStar through Pond A, via Cabreros St. and F. Llamas Sts., through a portion of Katipunan St. going up the hills of Banawa.
It proceeds from Paseo Arcenas and Apple Residences, through Banawa Elementary School towards Quijada St. that Monterazzas developer will build through PPP.
It connects to the DPWH Guadalupe-Lahug by-pass road project, towards St. John Paul II Ave., all the way to SM City Cebu at north reclamation area, according to CPDO head Arch’t. Yumi Espina.
| PPRMN/cte
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