Bus system for SRP may be ready in 3 years, says City consultant

By Jujemay G. Awit

Sunday, December 4, 2011

THE mini-Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system at the South Road Properties (SRP) may be an afterthought of the main BRT that will run through Bulacao and Talamban, but it could be finished sooner than the main mass transport system in Cebu City.

Nestor Archival, Cebu City consultant on BRT matters, said the mini-BRT at SRP will be easier to implement because it doesn’t have to go through an extensive feasibility study.

Hot investment in Cebu, click here

The main BRT system is at the feasibility study stage, where the economic and social impact will be thoroughly studied.

Proponents of the BRT, which will be funded by the World Bank, have to look at the effect of the system on the working class, particularly jeepney drivers who may be displaced.

The implementation of the mini-BRT will not displace drivers because there is no route at the SRP right now.

The mini-BRT is expected to be fully implemented in the second half of 2014, just in time for the SM Seaside City and Filinvest Land Inc.’s (FLI) Citta Di Mare to be fully operational.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. is expected to open its biggest shopping mall servicing Visayas and Mindanao next year, as FLI also turns over some units of their condominium units of the Citta Di Mare.

The 30-hectare SM property will feature P20 billion worth of projects including a church, convention center, hotels, residential condominiums, a school, and a hospital.

The Citta Di Mare is the condominium complex at the SRP with amenities such as a swimming pool, park, basketball court and others. Across the property is another FLI development in SRP called Il Corso, a commercial complex.

The SRP-BRT, according to foreign consultants Integrated Transport Planning (ITP), will cost P1.48 billion.

Archival, though, said this cost estimate is too high, which is why he plans to meet with the BRT technical working group (TWG) to refine the costing.

The TWG will also study where the SRP-BRT route will be and that will include identifying areas for a terminal.

“We may ask Talisay City that if they agree, the terminal could be there but if not, we will look at the other areas,” Archival told Sun.Star Cebu.

As to the main BRT system, Archival said the planned flyovers will have an effect on how the mass transport system works.

The consultant, though, would not say if this is a negative thing because a study could be conducted on how to work around the flyovers.

As in the Mambaling flyover, the BRT system could either go over the flyover or connect with the SRP-BRT.

At the rate the project is going, the BRT system may be finished in 2016.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on December 04, 2011.