A consortium of Chinese, Singaporean and Filipino investors formally submitted an unsolicited proposal to construct a $3-billion light rail transit system with a subway component in Cebu City, according to the Transportation Department.
The agency said the LRT system in Cebu would be constructed above the ground from Talisay to Carcar and from Mandaue to Danao, with an airport line from Mandaue to the Mactan Cebu International Airport complex.
“The LRT will become the main arterial backbone of Cebu’s mass transportation, with other ITS [Integrated Terminal System] components as feeder lines serving internal peripheries,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.
Tugade did not identify the members of the consortium, but earlier reports named Udenna Corp. of businessman Dennis Uy, SAA Group of Singapore and Guangzhou Metro China as among the parties involved in the proposal.
Tugade said the construction of the LRT would start earlier than other ITS components, as it would take more years to build than the rest.
He said the government would soon implement the ITS to synchronize various transportation solutions to address the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Cebu.
“There is no single solution to address transportation issues. It needs a basket of solutions. That is why we are pursuing the implementation of the Integrated Transportation System in Cebu in the next two years,” said Tugade.
The components of the ITS are a point-to-point bus system similar to MyBus, which is already operational in the city; a monorail in Lapu-Lapu City; the Bus Rapid Transit on three-lane roads; and the Light Rail Transit lines from Carcar to Danao and the Mandaue to airport lines.
“The ITS was developed after due consideration of Metro Cebu’s road profile, and the fast-growing need of efficient mass transport systems in bigger, inter-connected cities,” Tugade said.
Tugade said among the ITS components, the P2P bus system would be the fastest to implement. “There’s already an established system which the DOTr sees its potential to complement with other mass transit systems. All we need to do is to add more units,” he said.
Meanwhile, the monorail project would become Mactan Island’s main transport system, connecting Mactan Cebu International Airport to different hotels and resorts in the tourist island.
He said for Metro Cebu, the LRT system would be the major component of the ITS as it would stretch from Carcar to Danao.
The metro-wide mass transit program will converge at a common station. Passengers will be ushered to an inter-link terminal where connecting transit systems of all the components (bus-to-LRT, bus-to-BRT, or BRT-to-LRT) are located. The agency said it was studying two areas where the common station would be put up”•one in a coastal district and another in a city center.
Tugade said the government aimed to achieve the partial operability of the ITS program in the next one and a half to two years. “Once implemented, Cebu will become beautiful and more livable. The ITS will encourage interoperability and interconnectivity of land, air, and sea transportation,” he said.
Aside from the ITS, the DOTr is also considering the construction of flared intersections, road widening, and intelligence signaling systems as “other basket of solutions” to traffic congestion in Metro Cebu.