MMDA eyes new traffic lights with budget hike

Justifying the 81-percent increase in its proposed 2014 budget, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said it was planning to upgrade the rundown traffic signals at intersections in the metropolis and acquire new equipment for unclogging operations.

“We have proposed an increase in our budget to cover the modernization of our traffic intersections. We are also requesting [an] additional budget for a set of new equipment to siphon off floodwaters,” MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino told reporters on Monday.

Tolentino disclosed that a portion of the agency’s proposed budget for next year—P2.65 billion compared to P1.48 billion this year—would be used to replace the decades-old traffic controllers and signals at 161 intersections.

“These traffic signals have been there since 1976. They [have exceeded] their life span,” he said.

Tolentino added that the agency was planning to buy light-emitting diode (LED) traffic signal lanterns instead of the old models, which malfunction during a heavy downpour.

The installation of new traffic signals is part of the MMDA’s master plan to upgrade the entire traffic signal system in Metro Manila.

Since 2012, it has been rehabilitating 85 of 421 signal lights at the cost of P299 million.

Promising the agency will ease the flooding problem on major thoroughfares, which result in heavy traffic, Tolentino said part of the additional budget would cover the purchase of two siphoning trucks, backhoes and vehicles to haul away tons of trash.