Tugade offers Baguio City P26-M deal for cable car to La Union

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade has offered Baguio City a partner deal for a cable car system from La Union to Baguio, the city information office said on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, the city information office said Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong announced the offer during an Executive-Legislative meeting last week.

“Mayor Benjamin Magalong in the Executive-Legislative meeting on Sept. 23 announced that DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade offered the city to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the department in the pursuit of a cable car system from Pugo in La Union to Baguio,” it said.

According to the city government, Tugade instructed Transportation Undersecretary Mark Richmund De Leon to fast track the deal for the project which Tugade first introduced in 2016.

Before signing the agreement, the conceptual designs for the project, a first in the country, will be submitted for the city government to review.

“The cable car system was reportedly the subject of a P26-million feasibility study funded by the French government targeted for completion this year,” according to the city’s information office.

The DOTr is also willing to help the city if it decides to pursue a monorail project, according to the city government, citing a multi-billion peso monorail between Baguio and La Trinidad in Benguet proposed by the Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera.

Aside from Baguio City, the DOTr is also eyeing a cable car system along Pasig River. —Joviland Rita/VDS, GMA News