The Philippines has secured a $1 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to create a city-wide public transport system in Davao City with the deployment of a fleet of electric buses.
“The project is set to transform the quality of Davao City’s public transport and support the city’s rapid economic growth with a low-carbon and climate-resilient bus system,” said Shuji Kimura, ADB senior transport specialist for Southeast Asia.
“Not only will this support the Philippines’ climate goals, but it will help to improve the lives of vulnerable populations especially women and the young who use public transport daily,” he added.
The Davao Public Transport Modernization Project is meant as a pilot for overhauling the country’s road transport system. It supports the procurement of a modern fleet of about 1,100 buses with operations managed by the private sector under performance-based contracts.
The new fleet is expected to reduce 60 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions from public transports in Davao City, the country’s third-largest city by population.
The project will service about 800,000 passengers per day and includes the construction of some 1,000 bus stops with bright lighting and shelters, five bus depots, three bus terminals and bus driver 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, and Wi-Fi connectivity in the buses, terminals, and depots.
The loan forms part of a package worth $4 billion the ADB set aside earlier to underwrite some of the country’s policy and project undertakings.
