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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Light rail transit study for Cebu soon ready
Cebu may be a step closer to getting a 16-station light rail transit (LRT) system that will connect the southern and northern parts of the province.
“DOTC expects that the feasibility study will be given by the end of this month,” said Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Assistant Secretary for Planning and Project Development Robert Castañares.
“After the review of the study, the project proposal will be endorsed to the Investment Coordinating Council of Neda (National Economic and Development Authority) for final approval and execution,” he said.
Castañares was in Cebu Friday to present the DOTC’s plans for the next five years in line with the national government’s medium-term Philippine Development Plan.
During the Regional Tourism Congress at the Cebu Grand Convention Center, he said the DOTC had signed and executed a memorandum of agreement with a group of investors in December 2003 to conduct and validate a feasibility study for the LRT project.
The construction of the LRT along the center of Cebu will start in Tabunok. It will go through Talisay, passing along N. Bacalso Ave., before finally connecting to the Cebu North Road up to Consolacion.
Castañares said the Cebu LRT project is expected to increase accessibility and provide a more efficient transport alternative in the heavily congested Metro Cebu.
On aviation, the DOTC official voiced plans to construct a second passenger terminal building at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
“The plan for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority to aggressively pursue the construction of the second passenger terminal building to accommodate more flights will complement the Department of
Tourism’s master plan to attract five million visitors,” he said.
Castañares presented the conceptual design of the proposed P6-billion Iloilo airport as the basis for the Cebu terminal because right now the new Mactan-Cebu terminal building is still in the planning stage.
For international traffic rights, the country has a total of 15.1 million seat entitlements, of which only seven million are currently being used, 2.7 million by two Philippine carriers and 4.3 million by 30 foreign carriers.
In an interview last week, Civil Aeronautics Board Deputy Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla said around 300,000 air seats are available monthly for Cebu, but the utilization is not more than 20,000.
The places with specific entitlements to Cebu are Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Hongkong, Nepal, Palau, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Japan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
The USA, Korea, China, Canada, Egypt, Kuwait, Macau, Belgium, Germany, Pakistan, Switzerland, Russia, France, Netherlands and Nauru have open points or roving points entitlements to Cebu.
The Philippines aims to draw five million foreign tourists annually by 2010. Last year, it drew about 2.29 million foreign tourists.
Cebu and its neighboring tourist destinations that are part of the tourism clusters called Cebu Plus are also aiming to get five million tourists by 2010. But they expect only 3.5 million of these to be foreign tourists. (ALC)
(June 28, 2005 issue)
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