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Some 3,000 Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) personnel will
be fielded along major and minor thoroughfares in Metro Manila to
ensure a traffic-free opening of classes on June 10.
MMDA Traffic Operations Center Executive
Director Angelito de Dios said the field personnel will be composed
of traffic enforcers, laborers and streets sweepers who will be
focusing on traffic management, sidewalk clearing and de-clogging of
streets as part of the agency’s share of the Education
department-led “Oplan Balik Eskwela” program.
The MMDA is anticipating the traffic volume to
increase by 40 percent because two million pupils and students are
expected to report back to school, and a handful of private and
public utility vehicles will use the streets leading to school
zones.
“We will concentrate on perennially
traffic-prone areas like the University Belt in Manila, Ortigas
Avenue, Greenhills in San Juan and Katipunan Avenue in Quezon
City,” de Dios said.
In the past, motorists plying Ortigas Avenue
complained that vehicles fetching students to and from La Salle
Greenhills have occupied the road shoulder and even the two lanes of
the roadway, thus causing a tail end vehicles stretching by more
than half kilometer.
Traffic jam is also a high possibility along
Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City because it is sandwiched by the
campuses of University of the Philippines-Diliman, Ateneo de Manila
University and Miriam College.
Earlier, the MMDA proposed the construction of
“drop-off’’ points for school services in strategic areas
along Katipunan Avenue. Reports showed an estimated 16,000 vehicles
ferry 13,000 students and pupils in Katipunan Avenue on a daily
basis.
School authorities, however, remained mum on the
agency’s suggestion, according to MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando.
Metro Manila Police Director Geary Barias also
tasked 4,000 policemen to secure schools and students from criminals
during the first day of classes.
-- Jayson Cruz Luna
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