The Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City will be part of phase one of the Bus Rapid Transit project. (DALE ISRAEL / INQUIRER VISAYAS)
CEBU CITY — More than a decade since its conceptualization, the Cebu Bus Rapid (BRT) transit system will finally break ground on Monday, February 27.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will lead the ceremony alongside local officials and the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
A major stretch of Osmeña Boulevard will be closed to traffic during the event.
The groundbreaking will be for phase one of the Cebu BRT project which stretches from the Cebu South Bus Terminal along N. Bacalso Avenue towards Osmeña Boulevard up to the Cebu provincial capitol.
Phase one of the project was earlier awarded to China-based Hunan Road and Bridge Construction worth almost P1 billion.
The entire Cebu BRT project was estimated to cost 225.8 million US dollars committed by both the World Bank and the French Development Agency.
The complete Cebu BRT system will stretch around 13 kilometers from the Cebu South Road Properties up to the Cebu IT Park.
READ: Civil works for Cebu City BRT project begins
Meanwhile, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia is asking the DOTr for “just compensation” as portions of the BRT system will be using properties owned by the Cebu provincial government.
Cebu City is not under the provincial government, being an independent chartered city.
Garcia said the creation of 167-square meter bus stations will no longer be considered as a “road lot” of Osmeña Boulevard but as a vertical structure.
The Capitol owns the road lots and other real properties from Fuente Osmeña circle up to the capitol building or about a kilometer stretch falling within the BRT route.
READ: Cebu Bus Rapid Transit package 2 up for grabs
Garcia said she will not block the project but she just wants the DOTr and the proponents to acknowledge the province’s claim for “just compensation.”
As to how much, the governor said it will be assessed in future meetings.
“I will not say don’t build. But there should be just compensation for the province of Cebu because it will no longer be just a road you will put there but a bus station,” Garcia said in a press conference on Thursday.