InterAksyon.com
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MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) plans to build P50 billion Elevated EDSA along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) from Roxas Blvd in Pasay Ciy up to Balintawak in Caloocan City.
DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson also told the Senate finance committee chaired by Senator Franklin Drilon that the administration plans to build the Subic-Clark Expressway extension, the Central Luzon Expressway, to Nueva Vizcaya passing thru San Jose and Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija.
“There is an ambitious project which the secretary has undertaken and this is to build an elevated EDSA. This will cost about P50 billion, consisting of 6 lanes, from Roxas Blvd up to Balintawak. This is a total of approximately 22 kilometers,” said Singson, referring to himself in third person.
Singson said funding will be sourced from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of Japan International Cooperation Aid (JICA); as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, the government will pay for right-of-way requirements -- P5 billion for 2011 and P3 billion for 2012.
“We have provisions for PPP support, in other words, right of way. The projects that we have listed some of them will require government subsidy. That’s provided in the 2012 budget,” he said.
Singson said the DPWH has already started the technical evaluation, of whether it’s going to be elevated or tunnel. However, he said, the inclination seems to be for an elevated EDSA.
“The other issue is whether or not this should be totally funded from official development assistance from JICA, which has offered to fund this or we will let the private sector participate, in which case it will be toll either fully or partly,” Singson explained.
“But what is important is that this will be started during the term of the President. This will be sectionalized so that while the ambition is to finish this before 6 years, the reality is that we will be able to finish sections of this project which we believe is the ultimate solution to the hell that we go through every time we pass by EDSA,” the DPWH secretary told the committee.
Singson said the Elevated EDSA project is due for implementation in 2012.
“We will build it on top of EDSA. In other countries, nag-t-three levels na, tayo pinag-iisipan pa laang natin kung may second level tayo,” he added.
Singson also said that DPWH plans to build the Central Luzon East Expressway, the extension of SCTex that would bring traffic closer to Nueva Vizcaya passing through San Jose town and Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija.
Aside from these two projects, the DPWH also plans to build a 43-kilometer road dike along C6 road from Taguig to Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
“We are also working on the C6 which is the road dike, around 43 kms from Taguig to Sta. Rosa,” he said.
“These are the new ones. The others that are included in our PPP program are Cavite-Laguna Expressway, which runs from Cavite going all the way to Silang, down to Laguna, connecting to the South Luzon Expressway,” the DPWH secretary said.
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