BESAO, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- Upgrading of the seemingly never finished completion of the Nakawang Besao-Mabalite Tadian road here in the western part of the province was bidded out by the Provincial Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC).
Costing P192 million split in two phase packages are the P92M Nakawang Besao farm to market road (FMR) and the P102.5M Mabalite Tadian Farm to Market Road (FMR) funded by the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) of the Department of Agriculture.
Said road improvement splits in two directions from the Nakawang junction going to Mabalite-Tadian and an opposite direction towards Sumadel -Tadian. The road upgrading of this part of the Province from Besao intends to improve the route towards far flung Mabalite and the Tadian-Ilocos direction.
Four contractor- bidders participated in the bidding conducted by the PBAC last week currently on post qualification status.
Bidding for the improvement of the 20.7 kilometer Besao Nacawang-Tadian Mabalite FMR under the PRDP package failed in 2015 due to non takers.
The existing FMR was opened years ago using Provincial and municipal development funds.
Provincial Engineering Office (PEO) head Engr Edward Likigan said one kilometer to the road end to Mabalite still needs funding to complete the road upgrading and three more kilometers towards Sumadel Tadian. Upgrading refers to widening, concreting and riprapping of retaining walls.
One kilometer needs at least P30 million pesos to finish from opening to upgrading.
A P40 million infrastructure fund from the Department of Agriculture was allocated earlier for the.Tadian-Sumadel-Nakawang farm-to-market road Phases I and II
From another budget for the improvement of the existing Tadian–Nakawang Road within the Lubon section was allocated a P30 million under the Koncreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran (KALSADA) program of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the province.
The Nakawang Road is also a recipient of a P5 million maintenance fund for year 2016 under the Special Local Road Fund (SLRF) FY 2015 as incentive of the province for its good performance in the implementation of the previous SLRF projects.
This after it went through favorable inspection of the project monitoring team by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on an earlier P2 million maintenance work assistance.
KALSADA aims to upgrade roads with an average of 61.5 kilometers per province.
Still on same bidding conducted last week by the PBAC, 3.1 kilometer improvement of the Poblacion Paracelis to Bantay FMR costing P40.6 million under the PRDP package was bidded out to three contractor applicants and now on post qualification status.
Earlier last month, the P65 million project Improvement of the 4.5 kilometer Banata-Sumey-ang-Cuba-Sadsadan Bauko PRDP funded FMR for this vegetable producing town underwent bidding conducted by the PBAC.
Other PRDP projects are the civil works of Mountain Province Arabica Coffee Enterprise costing P8 million and the P156 million Improvement of Little Hill – Cada, Bauko FMR not yet bidded out.
Engr Gaston Cael, component head of PRDP-DA of the regional office said evaluation is ongoing for the proposed improvement of Little Hill- Cada FMR.
Cael also updated that the business development plan for the coffee enterprise project has been approved. Five consolidation centers have been proposed for five towns of the province.
Of the total P424 million PRDP projects for Mountain Province, the amount of P339 million was sourced from a World Bank loan and the rest from the Philippine government as counterpart.
The PRDP-DA is a six-year rural development nationwide project worth a total of P27.5 billion composed of a P20.5 billion loan from World Bank and P7 billion counterpart from the Philippine government and concerned LGUs.**By Gina Dizon
