Cordillera pushes for Road Improvement Project to spur growth
Davao City (31 March) -- To spur development in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and as part of the country's Economic Resiliency Plan, the Cordillera Roads Improvement Project (CRIP) will be pushed vigorously as one of the region's banner project.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Ralph G. Recto had said that part of the ERP is to speed up infrastructure projects.
NEDA-CAR Director Juan B. Ngalob said that this flagship project aims to provide a major road network and further integrate and interconnect it with its neighbors.
"CAR, a relatively young region, was carved out from Regions I (Abra, Mountain Province and Benguet) and II (Apayao, Kalinga and Ifugao). Thus the existing transportation system was oriented towards centers of Regions I and II. Through the CRIP, it is hoped that the different parts of the region become accessible to each other," he explained during the recent Philippine Economic Briefing in Baguio City.
The project involves building a north-south trunkline and an east-west lateral connection from Region I to Region II, passing through the Cordillera. From 2001 to 2008, two components of the project has been completed—the 80-kilometer La Trinidad-Mt. Data section, a World Bank-assisted project costing PhP1.2 billion and completed in 2005; and the 68-kilometer Baguio-Aritao Road or the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya road, a Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)-supported project costing PhP1.56 billion and completed in 2008.
Ongoing components of the project are the 90-kilometer Mt. Data-Bontoc-Banaue Road, costing PhP1.75 billion and the 98-kilometer Bontoc-Lubuagan-Tabuk Road, which costs PhP1.37 billion. Both projects are locally funded under the State of the Nation Address-North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (SONA-NLAQ). Another ongoing component is the 32-kilometer JBIC-supported Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes Road (Benguet–Ilocos Sur Road), costing around PhP682.30 million. All these projects are expected to be finished this year.
The other components of the project to be programmed are the Cagayan-Apayao-Ilocos Norte Road (Tuao-Kabugao-San Nicolas Road), whose feasibility study has been completed by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), while the Abra-Kalinga Road and the Cervantes-Sabangan Road components will be re-submitted to the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee for foreign assistance. (NEDA/PIA XI) [top]
