The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said the national project dubbed Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran (Kalsada) Program will help enhance economic activities among local government units and contribute to national growth.
In his recent visit to Iloilo City, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said the Kalsada program is the biggest nationally funded project with allocation of P6.5-billion for performance-based local road projects across 73 provinces in the country.
“The Kalsada program was launched this year under Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and DPWH to help local government units improve their local roads,” he said.
The program comprised aspects of good governance through local road management, rehabilitation and upgrading of provincial roads and turning over maintenance to the provincial government, development of a Provincial Road Network Development Plan (PRNDP) and establishment of city and provincial locational reference system for baseline data purposes.
“This will come up with an honest-to-goodness baseline data; ilang kilometro ba talaga ang city roads ninyo; ilang kilometro ba talaga ang provincial roads ninyo; at ano ba talaga ang kundisyon ng mga kalye na yan,” he said.
Singson expressed the agency’s commitments to improve quality and safety of national roads and bridges and increase investment in infrastructure from less than 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 to 5 percent of GDP by 2016.
He said there is a need to put significant emphasis on infrastructure development so that the economic growth particularly outside Metro Manila is continuous.
“For all these years, prior to the Aquino administration, NCR always got the biggest share of the budget. But since three to four years ago, we have moved out our budget outside of NCR,” he said.
He added that the public can expect more infrastructure projects such as national roads and bridges to be implemented in the provinces including Iloilo that will help improve connectivity of people, services, and goods.