MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is bidding out three contracts worth P63 million for the preparation of a transport model and urban development strategy for the Visayas and Mindanao.
The agency yesterday published three separate Request for Expression of Interest for the projects to be funded under the 2015 General Appropriations Act.
The DOTC has earmarked P37.22 million for the preparation of a transport model and urban development strategy for eastern, western, and central Visayas.
It has allocated another P12.7 million for the same project in the Bicol region and another P12.7 million for Northern Mindanao.
The Aquino administration approved last June a transport infrastructure plan, based on a study by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to reduce traffic congestion, pollution and the economic burden on the poor.
The study concluded that without intervention, traffic costs will likely to increase to P6 billion a day by 2030 from P2.4 billion today.
Preliminary analysis in the study showed that the average low-income group households have to spend no less than 20 percent of their monthly household income for transport.
Without intervention, traffic demand would likely increase by 13 percent by 2030 while transport costs would be 2.5 times higher.
With interventions, JICA said the average transport fare would be reduced to P24 from P42 due to improved connectivity and common fare while travel time would be reduced to 31 minutes per trip from 80 minutes.
Malacañang vowed to pursue more projects in the Visayas and Mindanao after increasing the fares for the Metro Rail Transit line 3 (MRT-3) as well as Light Rail Transit lines 1 and 2 (LRT-1 and 2) last Jan. 4.
The DOTC adopted the P 11 (base fare) + P 1 (per kilometer) formula for the MRT and LRT fares under the “user-pays” principle and shifted to a distance-based system from the previous zonal fare scheme.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya earlier said an estimated P2 billion would be freed up for development projects and relief operations in other parts of the country.
“The P2-billion savings can be used for development projects and relief operations to benefit those who never even get to use the LRT or MRT. I’m referring to the vast majority of Filipinos outside of Metro Manila – those in other parts of Luzon, in the Visayas, and in Mindanao, most especially those whose lives have been severely affected by typhoons and calamities,” Abaya earlier said.