In its further bid for a world-class status, Davao City will further expand its underground utility cables system within the Poblacion area.
Under the project, all utility cables and wires for telecommunications, electricity and other lines hanging in posts and dangling all around the city will be buried underground, and will be hidden from plain sight.
Councilor Diosdado Mahipus said Tuesday that the operation will be started by early 2017 and will have a one-year completion period.
“Just like abroad, all cables or wires hanging in wooden or cement posts will be a thing of the past and will never be an obstruction in the our skylines anymore,” Mahipus said.
The project is presently being undertaken only within the vicinity of the Davao City Hall which serves as a mere pilot area, but will eventually be spread all over the city.
Mahipus said there would be six phases for the underground cabling project in several downtown areas.
The first phase will be from corners San Pedro and Claveria Streets to Acacia; second phase will be at Acacia to Magsaysay Park; third phase from Paciano Bangoy Rotunda to Crooked Road; fourth phase would be at San Pedro Extension to Boy Scout Area; and fifth phase will be from Roxas to Mega Harbour proposed reclamation project.
Mahipus said that the council required the Davao Light Power Company (DLPC), and telecom companies to comply and will be the ones spending for the project and that the cable wires should be placed beneath the sidewalks.
“We do not want to occupy the road lanes again and we must avoid creating heavy traffic,” Mahipus added.
He added that the council is doing its best to pass the revised ordinance before this year ends.
In an executive order signed by then mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte, the Davao City Wires and Cable (WAC) technical team was created to oversee and manage the underground cable project to coordinate with DLPC, a subsidiary of the Aboitiz Power Corp. (Aboitiz Power).
The WAC technical team is comprised of members of the applicable government agencies concerned, private corporations affected by the project and other private entities.
Arturo Milan, executive vice president of the Davao Light said in a previous media interview that the project was immediately implemented upon the approval of their application by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
