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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, February 10, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Additional budget is needed for the Bacolod Economic Highway, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The P300-million allocation may cover only two-lanes of the 3-kilometer first phase, stressed Secretary Mark Villar.
The four-lane road project spans 21 kilometers. Its cost is estimated at P4.8 billion.
Villar promised to seek additional funding so the project will “not take five years” to complete.
The Cabinet secretary was in this city on Thursday for the laying of time capsule for the project in Barangay Cabug.
Villar said he considers the project important for Negros Island Region.
President Rodrigo Duterte wants government projects, especially on infrastructure, fast-tracked. He hopes the Bacolod Economic Highway gets completed halfway into his term, the secretary said.
Of the P300 million, P164,799,000 was allotted for civil works, while the remaining amount was intended for the compensation of affected locals.
Rep. Greg Gasataya said the Economic Highway will have a service road, a bicycle lane and a jogging lane.
It will “open a new growth area” and “tremendously improve the traffic situation” by, among others, decongesting the circumferential road, he said.
Meanwhile Mayor Evelio Leonardia believes the project will “bring economic growth” and “change the complexion” of Bacolod; hence, its name.
The highway will cut through nine barangays from Sum-ag to Bata, all the way to the Bacolod-Silay Airport Access Road.
Its first phase will cover only three villages: Sum-ag, Pahanocoy and Cabug.
Leonardia previously said the Economic Highway will be the “biggest single infrastructure project” in the city.
Most of the areas it will cover have “no economic life” except for agricultural plantations and are “untouched,” he had said.
The DPWH central office is funding the project, said Assistant District Engineer Leah Jamero of the local District Engineering Office.
Conceptualized in 2009, the “multiyear” project was included in the medium-term public investment program of the department, Jamero said./PN
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