- Details
- Category: Top News
- 30 May 2014
- Written by Butch Fernandez
THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board, chaired by President Aquino, on Thursday approved for “simultaneous implementation” nine big-ticket infrastructure projects, most of which are expected to be completed beyond his term in 2016.
Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said the projects would be funded partly from the national budget, concessional Asian Development Bank (ADB) loans and public-private-partnership (PPP) arrangements.
At a Palace briefing on Friday, Coloma said the projects, passed during the Neda Board meeting that stretched from 1 p.m. on Thursday to midnight, involved infrastructure, transportation, water supply and health care, costing P62.3 billion, including the master plan for the development of the Clark Green City proposed by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
Coloma said two of the approved projects would “address the long-term water supply requirements” of Metro Manila and adjacent regions: the P18.7-billion Kaliwa Dam project in Tanay, Antipolo, and the P5.8-billion Angat Dam water-transmission project.
“We are determined to speed up the implementation of these vital projects, given the fact that by the end of this month, this administration will have exactly only two years left of its term,” Coloma said.
He added: “The determination is there, the desire to improve project implementation is there and we are creating a lot of citizen awareness so that there will be monitoring of the progress of these projects and pressure to get these projects done at the soonest time in the right way.”
He said the proposed Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Kaliwa Dam project involves “the construction of a dam that will produce 600 million liters per day of water supply and a water conveyance tunnel with a capacity of 2,400 million liters per day in anticipation of the future construction of the Laiban Dam.”
The project covers portions of the municipalities of Tanay, Antipolo and Teresa in Rizal province and the towns of General Nakar and Infanta in Quezon. He said it would be “implemented through public-private partnership, under variants of the build-lease-and-transfer scheme.”
The Angat Dam water-transmission project, proposed to be funded by a $60-million ADB loan, “aims to improve the reliability and security of the Angat raw-water transmission system through the rehabilitation of existing conveyances from Ipo Dam to the La Mesa treatment plant.”
Moreover, Coloma said the development of local water districts would also be improved significantly “through the approved implementation of the Local Water Utilities Administration’s initiative and a $60-million [P2.7-billion] Asian Development Bank loan facility.”
At the same time, he said three pilot projects would jump-start the expected upgrading of facilities and services of some 60 local water districts nationwide. These will be implemented in Koronadal City and in the metropolitan San Fernando City, Pampanga, area and 15 water districts in Bulacan.
Coloma added that for earthquake-damaged Bohol province, the Cabinet also approved P653 million for the Malinao Dam Improvement Project of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to “double the impounding capacity of the existing dam to sufficiently provide irrigation water to unserved and undeserved areas of the Bohol Integrated Irrigation System.”
The Neda Board, he said, also approved the P10.6-billion Cebu bus rapid-transit project to address the “urgent need for a mass transport facility in the bustling Cebu City metropolis,” noting that the project would deliver “fast, comfortable and cost-effective mobility” in and around Cebu City through the provision of a segregated right-of-way infrastructure.
According to Coloma, “the project is expected to be completed by 2017, although major portions may be operational by 2016.” It will be financed through loans from the Agence Française de Dèveloppement and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development through its clean technology fund,” he said.
Also approved was the P4.1-billion project to upgrade the Busuanga airport in Palawan “from a turbo-prop to a jet-capable airport through the realignment of its existing runway and modernization of terminal facilities. To be funded through the general appropriations allocated to the Department of Transportation and Communications, Coloma said the project is expected to boost tourism growth even further, given the 47-percent average annual growth in passenger traffic in Busuanga and Coron, Palawan.
“Also approved for implementation was the bidding-out of the Light Rail Transit [LRT 2] operations and maintenance project estimated at P16.5 billion in order to increase operating efficiency from the present level of 67 percent [or six out of 18 train-sets]operational daily to 95-percent availability of the total LRT 2 fleet,” the Palace official said.
He also confirmed a P1.2-billion fund to be drawn from the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways for the Laoag Airport Road Link project to “provide easier access to the Laoag international airport and the Currimao port, thereby boosting trade and tourism in what is also Northern Luzon’s educational center.”
At the same time, Coloma said the Neda Board approved the allocation of P2 billion from the budget of the Department of Health (DOH) to expand the Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital’s existing 447-bed capacity to a modern 800-bed hospital, the largest maternity care and birthing facility in the country.
“This will buttress the Department of Health’s efforts to meet the country’s Millennium Development Goal of reducing the rate of infant and maternal mortality at childbirth. Project cost of P2 billion will be borne by DOH from general appropriations,” he said.
Coloma also reported that the Clark Green City project, covering the municipalities of Capas and Bamban in Tarlac province, involves the approved “disposition of 1,300 hectares, constituting phase one of the project containing institutional, mixed-use and industrial development starting 2014.”
He noted that the recent groundbreaking of the proposed University of the Philippines campus in Clark was part of this initial implementation phase.
No comments:
Post a Comment