THE Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) will have a new building and modern equipment by 2020.

This was announced by Mayor Edgardo Labella, who also said the City Command Center will be housed in the new building. The command center dispatches response teams to emergency situations, including road incidents and other events that need medical attention.

According to Labella, the new CCTO building costs more than P200 million. The funds will be sourced from the 2020 annual budget.

Within the first three months of 2020, the mayor said the CCTO will be transferred to another office as its old building on N. Bacalso Ave. will undergo renovation. The new CCTO building will be constructed near the old building in the same period of time.

“The old building will be renovated and there will be another building for the CCTO,” Labella said. “In that (new) building, they (the CCTO personnel) will install the traffic intelligence system.”

The system, he said, covers the entire city. It will not only receive reports about traffic-related incidents, but “all forms of disasters” like fire, flooding and landslide.

Also in 2020, Labella said the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will transfer to its new building on Panganiban St.

After the October 2013 earthquake damaged the old CCMC building, the former CCTO office and portions of the Bureau of Fire Protection 7 headquarters near the Cebu South Bus Terminal were converted into a temporary hospital.

Labella further said the City has obtained funds for the modern traffic light system, which costs nearly P250 million.

The budget was approved after the City Council passed the second supplemental budget requested by Labella’s office early this year.

CCTO chief executive officer Ricardo Barandog and operations chief Andres Bayarcal welcomed Labella’s upcoming projects, saying these would motivate them to work as enforcers of traffic laws. (PAC / KAL)