MANDAUE City will soon implement the use of electric buses following an ordinance approved by the Mandaue City Council that mandates using environment-friendly transport units to address the city's environmental problems.

Edwin Jumao-as, Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) head, told reporters on Friday, August 12, 2022, that they are now coordinating with transport operators in the city to conduct a transition period for using electric buses.

Jumao-as said they mandated operators to have at least one electric bus out of 15 units deployed along routes in Barangays Cabangcalan, Cansaga, Tintay, and along Hernan Cortes St. soon.

Jumao-as said this is to ensure they would master operating the electric buses should the City Government mandate them to transition fully into using such.

The electric buses will be fully airconditioned and have a seating capacity of 25 persons. The fare for it would be slightly higher than the regular buses, but Jumao-as said they have not discuss about it yet.

These buses will still observe the color coding policy.

“We also remind our operators to follow the color coding policy so they will not have trouble renewing their franchise,” said Jumao-as.

Also on Friday, August 12, one of the transport operators had a dry run with the bus supported by Get Philippines, one of the City Government's partners, to supply electric buses.

On April 25, the City Council approved Ordinance 15-2022-1710, authored by Councilor and Chairman of the Committee of Transportation Jimmy Lumapas, requiring Mandaue City to use electrically operated transport vehicles to address environmental issues and climate change.

Jumao-as said the use of electric buses would help address the city's flood problem, as well as the environment.

Flooding has been a problem in some areas in Mandaue City. On August 4, some villages were flooded following heavy rains. (HIC)