Daily cost of traffic to every Metro Manila resident: P120

MANILA – The Philippines has to speed up the implementation of a multi-billion dollar transportation infrastructure roadmap amid the rapid urbanization of Metro Manila, a Japanese expert said last week.

Shizuo Iwata, project manager of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said the government should prioritize the implementation of its proposed $65.3 billion or P2.6 trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and Its Surrounding Areas, which seeks to avert heavy congestion in Mega Manila by 2030.

The transport infrastructure roadmap has been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board.

Iwata said the government should implement the project “as soon as possible” because Metro Manila has been growing rapidly, adding that the estimated population in Mega Manila will reach 30 million in 2030 from the current 20 million.

“It has the money. It is the first time in the history of the masterplan for Metro Manila. Before, whenever that we have a dream plan we always have a lack of money. So, we have to reduce the size of their plan. But at this time, the Philippines has the money,” Iwata said, adding that the government can tap the private sector or official development assistance (ODA).

The roadmap recommends planned and guided urban expansion to adjoining provinces through an integrated public transport, affordable housing for low-income groups, retrofitting of existing urban areas in integration with public transport, expanding multi-modal public transport network, and strengthening traffic management systems.

According to the JICA study, the economic impact of the “dream plan,” if implemented, is P1.2 trillion a year by 2030. This will also result in P18 in public transport fare savings per day, and a reduction in travel time to 31 minutes from 80 minutes.

The JICA study also shows that the daily cost of traffic in Metro Manila is estimated at P2.4 billion. With the estimated 20 million population of Metro Manila, that amounts to P120 each resident a day.

Without intervention, the cost will increase 2.5 times to P6 billion a day as traffic increases by 13 percent in 2030. That’s a per capital figure of P200.

For the short-term program or from 2014 to 2016, JICA estimates about P520 billion worth of infrastructure projects required to ease congestion in Metro Manila.

Of the total, P64.94 billion would be for road projects, P164.66 billion for expressways, P178.82 billion, for rails, P11.37 billion for airports, P12.09 billion for ports and P8.34 billion for road-based public transport. -Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com