P30B Allocated by Government for Tourism Infra
#BuildBuildBuild: The government aims to provide ease and comfort on transport for its projected 7.4 million tourists through 2018 by allocating 30.9 billion pesos to develop vital tourism infrastructure across 16 regions in the country.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Tourism (DOT) will work together under this year’s Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP), developing 1,688 kilometers of tourism roads via 677 projects spread across 16 regions in the Philippines.
Included in this year’s tourism road projects are access roads leading to:
- Mapita Tribal Community in Pangasinan
- New Clark City
- Callao Caves in Tuguegarao City
- Buscalan in Kalinga (home of the last mambabatok, Apo Whang-Od)
- Seven Cities in Iloilo
- La Paz, Zamboanga City
- Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon
- Asik-Asik Falls, North Cotabato
- Surigao del Sur (Hinatuan Enchanted River)
- Taal, Batangas
- San Jose, Romblon
- Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte
Other priority projects under TRIP are: Pasacao-Balatan in Camarines Sur; Gilutongan and Nalusuan Marine Sanctuary in Cebu; and Canopy Forest in Eastern Samar.
The DPWH-DOT convergence program started in 2011 with the aim of constructing, upgrading, rehabilitating, and improving roughly 463 roads and bridges. The program has successfully completed over 1,500 tourism roads nationwide in the last five years with a P60-billion budget allocation.
TRIP, a successor of the Tourism Road Infrastructure Project Prioritization Criteria, is part of the 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda of President Duterte. It is designed to complement other infrastructure projects and aims to usher the Philippines into the so-called Golden Age of Infrastructure.
via Business Mirror / Lorenz S. Marasigan
