THE Public Works department said it has allotted over P20 billion over two years to significantly reduce flooding in Metro Manila.
“We have existing projects that are in the pipeline that I’m sure it will help alleviate [flooding problems] at the same time we have a major masterplan that we just got an approval from the ICC [Investment Coordination Committee] that we hope to implement in the next couple of years for the whole Metro Manila,” Public Works Secretary Mark Villar told reporters.
Villar said the masterplan will cost more than P20 billion that will “significantly reduce “ flooding in Metro Manila.
Besides addressing the flooding problems in Metro Manila, Villar said the Duterte administration aims to make a major improvement in traffic in two to three years.
“We have projects in the pipeline in two to three years that we think will greatly improve a lot of the problems in our infrastructure bottlenecks. So, that’s why we are very confident that we can make large strides toward solving these issues,” Villar said.
He said projects such as the North Luzon Expressway Connector Road, NLEX Harbor Link, the Naia Expressway Project, the widening of C6 and C3, among others that will help reduce traffic in Metro Manila.
“We also have a lot of flyovers, overpasses that are in the works in the next two to three years that we believe will greatly alleviate the traffic,” Villar said.
“This administration is committed to go all out in infrastructure, we are planning to really have major improvements in the next two to three years,” he added.
Villar said the agency is prioritizing the construction of the P3.03-billion Edsa-Taft flyover, which was put on hold in 2013. The planned flyover is a 1.2 kilometers, two lanes in both directions of Edsa spanning Malibay Bridge from Makati City to F.B. Harrison Street in Pasay City.
The Public Works Department is also pursuing the construction of a bridge that would cross Pasig River to connect Bonifacio Global City in the Taguig-Makati area and Ortigas Center in Pasig.
Phase one will connect Sta. Monica Street in Kapitolyo, Pasig City to Lawton Avenue in Makati, while the second phase will run from Lawton to the Bonifacio Global City viaduct, then from Shaw Boulevard to the Sta. Monica viaduct.
Other projects include the C5 Road to Julia Vargas Flyover in Pasig City; Katipunan to C5 Road Flyover and Miriam to Gate 3 of Ateneo de Manila University flyover.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency estimated that the daily cost of traffic in Metro Manila was P2.4 billion.
DPWH has a total budget of P363.54 billion this year, higher by 33 percent from last year’s P273.91 billion.
Of the total budget, the agency will be spending P204.12 billion for highways, P64.20 billion for flood control and P95.23 billion for other projects.
The bulk of the budget will be distributed to Mindanao amounting to P100.99 billion, followed by Northern Luzon, P73.14 billion; Southern Luzon, P62.53 billion; Visayas, P59.13 billion and Metro Manila, P23.63 billion.