The Department of Transportation said it secured P25 million in funding from the French government for a feasibility study on the installation of cable cars in Metro Manila.
“There’s a grant from French Embassy, we are just waiting the approval from the Office of the President. They will be conducting a feasibility study to install cable cars in Metro Manila,” Garry V. de Guzman, DoTr undersecretary for administration and Finance said Monday.
“If successful, we will also conduct a feasibility study in Baguio or Boracay,” he added.
The installation of cable cars aims to decongest traffic in Metro Manila.
According to the Japan International for Cooperation Agency, the updated daily cost of traffic in Metro Manila was P3.5 billion in 2017, higher than the estimated P2.4 billion based on its previous transport roadmap.
JICA said with the estimated 12.8 million population of Metro Manila as of 2015, the cost would amount to P273 for each resident a day, up from P187.5 for each resident in the previous roadmap.
Without intervention, the daily cost traffic would increase to P5.4 billion in the coming years, the agency said.
JICA said Metro Manila’s traffic situation was getting worse, as traffic demand reached 13.4 million trips a day.
By 2035, the daily cost of traffic is seen doing down to P3 billion with the government’s “Build Build Build program,” the agency said. It said with additional projects, the impact would be further reduced to P2.4 billion.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the BBB program would mean more roads, bridges, railways, airports and ports being constructed, and more jobs being generated.
The government plans to spend P8 trillion to P9 trillion, or roughly $160 billion to $180 billion, in the next six years for the BBB program.
The Duterte administration this year appropriated P847.2 billion in the national budget for infrastructure projects or equivalent of 5.3 percent of the gross domestic product. This is higher than the 2.6 percent average infrastructure spending of the last six administrations.
The Philippines never reached the 5 percent of GDP threshold for infrastructure spending in the last 30 years.
Infrastructure spending for 2018 alone will reach P1.13 trillion.
