DOTr hires technical consultant for BRT

CEBU, Philippines — After several months of delay, the Department of  Transportation (DOTr) has finally hired and mobilized the Technical Support Consultant (TSC) for the implementation of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit project.

Transportation Assistant Secretary Mark De Leon, in a press release, said the TSC will study the integration of BRT to the proposed Integrated Inter-Modal Transport System (IITS) for Metro Cebu.

“The first thing that the TSC will do is to prepare a masterplan that will integrate the BRT into the proposed IITS. In effect, BRT will just be one of the components of the entire system considered by the DOTr as basket of solutions to Metro Cebu’s traffic,” De Leon said.

The BRT system is a specialized form of mass transportation where modern buses will ply exclusive lanes and will use specific stations.

Last July, the Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee of NEDA green-lighted anew the P16.3-billion Cebu BRT project despite the initiatives to cancel it.

With the mobilization of the TSC, the BRT’s civil works, detailed engineering, and other aspects of the project will also be moving.

It has been noted in the audit reports of Commission on Audit that the non-mobilization of Technical Support Consultant was considered as the major reason or the start of the “chain reaction of delays” in the completion of the BRT project as a whole.

De Leon said the alignment of the 23-kilometer BRT project might be changed after the mobilization of the TSC.

Sought for comment, Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete said the city government expressed its gratitude to DOTr for conducting a thorough review and analysis of the BRT project “in spite of the misplaced and unfounded objections.”

 “We have been advised by DOTr of the mobilization of the TSC of the Cebu BRT.  The TSC is an integral part of the project and its Terms of Reference (TOR) is clearly defined under the Loan Agreements with the World Bank and AFD,” he said.

Villarete said it is part of the TSC’s job to continuously review and validate the specifications of the project.

He maintained that there would be no possibility of the change in alignment since the ridership figures of the project is “fairly increasing.”

“DOTr and the TSC is of course aware that any change in alignment in the corridor would involve a change in cost and benefits which will involve the conduct of another feasibility study not to mention going back to NEDA-ICC for another round of evaluation of approval.  Somebody who wishes to change alignments probably hates the project so much they want to stop it again,” he added.

Villarete said the TSC can no longer change the alignment of the project since it has already undergone the technical experts of the government.

The World Bank and the Agence Francaise Development already agreed with the alignment 10 years ago.

As to the inclusion of IITS in the TSC, Villarete said it would be good if DOTr can amend the TSC’s contract since the country needs the consultant’s expertise for future projects.

The IITS will include the CBRT, skytrain project, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Light Rail Transit, and greenways project, among others.

Villarete said these projects are still on the feasibility study stage, adding that it will take 10 years or more for them to take place as they still have to go through “rigorous” processes in National Economic Development Authority.  — KBQ (FREEMAN)