The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) intends to spend P62.633 million of its 2015 approved budget in preparing a transport model and urban development strategy for Visayas, Bicol, and Northern Mindanao.
For this year, DOTC was allotted a budget of P59.5 billion, 21.9% more compared with last year’s budget of P48.8 billion.
In separate bid bulletins, the transport department sought consultants interested in drafting a transport model and public transport plan for Regions 6, 7, and 8.
Of the total P62.633 million, P37.227 million will be used for the Eastern, Western, and Central Visayas transport plan, and P12.703 million each for Bicol and Northern Mindanao.
DOTC spokesperson Atty. Michael Arthur Sagcal, in a text message to PortCalls, said “these are road transportation rationalization studies which are similar to and follow the current project for NCR (National Capital Region).”
“We will pursue these studies for all regions, but to keep within our located budget this year, Regions 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 were identified as priorities,” Sagcal noted.
Asked why these regions headed the priority list, he said “the need to rationalize their routes is more immediate.”
DOTC’s bids and awards committee will draw up a shortlist of five prospective bidders for each project among those who submit eligibility documents and expressions of interest on or before February 10.
Meanwhile, projects under the NCR study, Sagcal said, include public utility vehicle routes and the Manila bus rapid transit (BRT).
In a recent notice, DOTC invited bidders to prepare a detailed engineering design for the Manila BRT that will involve a dedicated lane with specific bus stations and will operate along the Quirino Highway-to-Manila City Hall route.
The transport department said the project should be completed by 2018. DOTC further noted it should have 32 stations, be able to serve about 279,500 passengers per day using 300 buses, and have waiting times limited to two to five minutes.
“The identified corridor is a main strategic transport route cutting diagonally through the upper half of Metro Manila,” the DOTC said, adding that “it is a route that is not currently served by any form of mass transit.”
“The corridor’s strategic importance and its connections with the Light Rail Transit Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and Philippine National Railways, together with its high volume of travel, make it a vital mass transit route,” DOTC noted.
Interested bidders must submit their expressions of interest on or before February 19. This is the second BRT project following the P10.6-billion Cebu BRT system that is for bid-out in the middle of 2015. – Roumina Pablo
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