• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Mayor Alfredo Benitez has asked the Sangguniang Panlungsod for an authority to enter into and sign the build-transfer-maintain agreement, in line with the proposed Bacolod Super City project, worth P2,105,285,273.
The project involves the establishment of a centralized command center in Barangay Taculing, put up of intelligent street lamp poles with video surveillance analytics (VSA) in around 150 locations all over Bacolod, property and tax assessment system (PTAS), and geographical information system (GIS), aimed towards making Bacolod a super city.
The proposed public-private partnership project will be with Highdata Infra Corp., represented by its president, Anthony Christian Angeles, with the notice of award issued late last month.
The company submitted an unsolicited proposal in 2023 and was eventually awarded the project following the PPP Prequalification/Qualification Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) meeting on Jan. 13 this year at the City Mayor’s Office and via zoom.
As per the proposed agreement, the project aims to establish a central hub for monitoring and responding to diverse conditions and incidents within the city; and enhance the delivery of frontline and backroom services and transactions of the local government unit, specifically by enabling the LGU to streamline transaction processing, property valuation maintenance, and archiving of real property tax records.
It also aims to allow the LGU to visualize and analyze geographic information using digitized parcel maps to improve workflows, increase operational efficiency with location intelligence, and enhance data sharing within its different departments.
The centralized command center will be for monitoring urban traffic, offenses, disasters, public disturbances, flood control, and other incident detection in public places that are within the coverage of the video surveillance deployment in and around Bacolod.
The intelligent streetlamp poles with VSA will help promote and improve security and vehicular traffic flow by understanding traffic patterns across key road networks, major crossings, and thoroughfares, and to improve incident identification and emergency response.
The PTAS will be designed for efficient transaction processing, property valuation maintenance, and archiving of real property tax records to improve the city’s tax collection functions, while the unified GIS will be used for spatial analysis to integrate and manage data and enhance data sharing among the LGU’s departments, the proposed agreement added.
Benitez had said the project is part of the vision of Bacolod to become a super city. “The foundation that we are creating is really aligned towards the concept of a smart, super city.”
Dubbed Project: Bacolod Super City, this is one of the more than 45 infra projects earlier exempted from spending ban by the Commission on Elections in line with the May 12 midterm polls.
The SP is expected to soon act on Benitez’s request for an enabling ordinance that would allow him to enter into and sign the contract. | CGC
