ILOILO City – This highly urbanized city has been chosen as pilot site by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to work on policies and programs for a low carbon urban transport system.
“Iloilo City’s biggest contributor to air pollution is public transportation emissions. Since the city’s direction under Mayor Jerry Treñas is to be a smart city, then we will craft policies and programs for our public utility jeepneys and tricycles geared towards the lowering of emission,” said Jeck Conlu, head of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO).
PSTMO sits as vice chair of the technical working group (TWG) that will craft the policy with technical assistance from the UNDP for a year.
Conlu said UNDP recognizes that the city is gearing to become “smart environment-friendly” and it noted early interventions, particularly the Local Public Transportation Route Plan (LPTRP).
LPTRP is not only about transport modernization. It also aims to make the transport sector environment-friendly by promoting the use of engines not lower than Euro 4 with low carbon emissions.
Eventually, traditional jeepneys will also be replaced by modernized jeepneys while the city is also gearing towards the adoption of e-bicycles instead of tricycles.
Currently, around 2,100 traditional jeepneys and over 1,000 tricycles are plying the city streets while 1,767 modernized jeepneys have franchises to operate.
“If we can lower our emission, Iloilo City will be one of the least polluted cities in the country,” Conlu said.
He said they are now on data gathering that will serve as basis for a low carbon transport system. (PNA)
