The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on June 29 approved a 1 billion USD loan to improve city-wide public transport in Davao city of the Philippines.
The Davao public transport modernisation project is ADB’s largest road-based public transport project in the Philippines. It is also the first project in the country to deploy electric bus fleets at a large scale in support of efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and promote climate action.
It will support the procurement of a modern fleet comprised of about 1,100 electric and Euro 5-standard diesel-fueled buses with operations managed by the private sector under performance-based contracts. The new fleet is expected to reduce 60% of annual greenhouse gas emissions from public transport in Davao, the third largest city by population in the Philippines.
Not only will this support the Philippines’ climate goals, but it will help to improve the lives of vulnerable groups, especially women and young people who use public transport daily, said ADB Senior Transport Specialist for Southeast Asia Shuji Kimura.
The project will serve about 800,000 passengers per day. It also includes the construction of around 1,000 bus stops, 5 bus depots and 3 bus terminals, and provide bus driving training for the new system. It will upgrade the city’s public transport experience via an intelligent transport system that includes a bus location system, automatic fare collection systems, and Wi-Fi connectivity in buses, terminals, and depots.
ADB has provided project preparatory technical assistance to help Davao city plan for the new bus system since 2015./.
(VNA)
