Talisay Pier to be completed by Jan. ‘09

REP. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) is confident the Talisay City pier-cum-fish port along the Cebu South Coastal Road will be completed exactly a year from now.

Gullas, the project initiator, said he was impressed by the progress of contractor WT Construction, when he inspected the site last Thursday afternoon.

“I didn’t expect that it was that fast, the work progress is tremendous,” said Gullas, who last visited the area late last year.

He cited the pavement of the 167-meter causeway and the concrete wall separating the 1.150-hectare pier area and the 600-square meter fish port.

The 10-meter wide causeway will be expanded to another 250 meters to allow big vessels, such as roll-on, roll-off (roro) ships to dock.

As initially planned, the Talisay City port will have a direct passenger ferry to Lapu-Lapu for workers at the Mactan Economic Zone.

It will surely cut travel time as Lapu-Lapu City-bound commuters will no longer have to take public utility jeepneys to the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.

The fish port will have a concrete ramp for fishing boats and vertical facilities such as cold storage and ice plant to be funded by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources (Bfar).

Inspection

Elated by the work improvement, Gullas said he will invite to an ocular inspection next month Secretary Larry Mendoza of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) and Bfar.

The construction was made through the funding support of DOTC, amounting to P18 million in 2007 and another P25 million this year.

The DA released P15 million last year and is expected to shell out another P15 million this year. The CPA has also earmarked P36 million for the completion of the project.

“I’d want them (the officials) to personally see the progress of the construction, maybe in the second week of February,” Gullas said.

Gullas was then mayor of Talisay City when he broached the idea of constructing a fish port after Talisay fish vendors were barred from displaying their goods in Cebu City.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña shooed away the vendors after Talisay City claimed part of the South Road Properties (SRP).

The Talisay City pier-cum-fish port is just a few meters away the bridge of the SRP.