Mayor Benjamin Magalong named the projects lined up for this year designed to rev up the city’s economic recovery and arrest social problems contributing to urban decay.
He said of the 31 projects, 12 are considered as catalytic projects that have significant impact on the environment, economy, services, employment, social, and health needs of the populace.
He said the projects are expected to create around 4,000 employment opportunities and most are income-generating expected to shore up the city’s economy from the pandemic-induced slump.
Among the projects are the market development, which he said will continue to be pursued, and intermodal transport terminal to address traffic, high carbon emission, and mobility concerns.
Also lined up are slaughterhouse modernization with cold storage facility of triple A standard, multi-level parking and commercial building at the Baguio Fire Station site to fix parking problem at City Hall, and continuation of parks development.
Bayan Park rehabilitation has started and next will be the rehabilitation of Aguinaldo Park at Salud Mitra, implementation of the second phase of arboretum, and implementation of the P109-million Wright Park development.
He said the satellite market at Gibraltar worth P65M will be implemented this year. Continuation of the barangay hall improvement projects and construction of super health centers are also among the big ticket projects.
Out of 16 district health centers, 10 are already PhilHealth-accredited. Inspections are continuing to determine needs to make them primary health care facilities and to convert the rest as Konsulta package providers.
The youth convergence and indoor sports complex amounting to P380M will also be pursued as well as the P30M athletes’ quarters that already started, groundbreaking of the underground parking at the athletic complex, and the tennis court rehabilitation.
Sidewalk rehabilitation projects will continue, this time to cover 24 kilometers as well as the ongoing satellite market modernization projects, one of which will soon be completed.
More road widening projects in coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways are also expected.
The livable communities will also start in Happy Hallow barangay as well as the traffic control system costing P119M with DPWH, and the smart mobility transportation system, a public-private partnership undertaking whose feasibility study is ongoing.
Unsolicited proposals for monorail system are being evaluated as well as that of the water system, which is part of the bulk water project intended to produce recycled sewer water with a target of 10 million liters a day.
The city will start evaluating a proposal along with back-up technology refuse-derived fuel technology to lower garbage produce as part of the waste-to-energy project.
Phases 2 and 3 of eco-park are for implementation this year as well as the digital transformation center project costing P890M. Review of design is ongoing under a design and build mode in collaboration with the Department of Information Communication Technology.
Project Lightning, seen to increase bandwidth from 100 mbps to 1 to 4 gig, is also ongoing.
The segregation of barangays from Camp John Hay will start this year with four barangays Country Club, Upper Dagsian, Greenwater, and Sta. Escolastica. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
