Scenic road to link Besao, Tadian, Ilocos Region

By Gina Dizon

BESAO, Mountain Province – Tourists and travellers wanting to go to the Ilocos Region could soon pass through a shorter and picturesque route from this sleepy town, pass though Tadian town, Amlimay Bridge then exit to Ilocos Sur.   

The provincial bids and awards committee (PBAC) has bid out last week construction of the P192 upgrading of the unfinished Nakawang Besao-Mabalite Tadian road here in the western part of the province.

The amount will be split in two phases: P92 Nakawang Besao farm to market road and P102.5 Mabalite Tadian 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 opposite towards Sumadel -Tadian.

The road upgrading intends to improve the route towards far flung Mabalite and the Tadian- Ilocos direction located adjacent Besao.

Four contractor- bidders participated in the bidding conducted by the PBAC on post qualification status.

Bidding for the project 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 engineer 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, Likigan said, refers to widening, concreting and riprapping of retaining walls.

One kilometer needs at least P30 million pesos to finish infrastructure work from opening to upgrading.

A  P40 million infrastructure fund from the DA was given earlier for the.Tadian-Sumadel-Nakawang farm-to-market road Phases I and II

From another budget for the improvement of the existing Tadian–Nacawang Road within the Lubon section was given P30 million under Kongreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran (KALSADA) program of the  Dept. 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 Dept. of Interior and Local Government on 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 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. 

Engineer 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 said the business development plan for the coffee enterprise project was approved.

Five consolidation centers have been proposed for five towns of the province.

Of the total P424 million PRDP projects for Mountain Province projects,  P339 million was sourced from World Bank  loan and the rest Philippine government counterpart.

The PRDP-DA is a six-year rural development nationwide project  worth a total of  P27.5 billion composing  P20.5 billion loan from World Bank and P7 billion counterpart from the Philippine government and concerned local government units.