URDANETA CITY–A modern overpass is being built across the MacArthur Highway here to further stimulate trading at the public market and step up the city's economic status.
Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. said the P6-million structure will connect the eastern side of MacArthur Highway to the second floor of the public market and provide additional access to buildings 1 and 2.
Perez said this is a strategy to entice businessmen to establish their stalls in the second floor of the market, where occupancy remains few and slow.
The overpass is being built through a funding from Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco's Priority Development Assistance Fund. Cojuangco also bankrolled the widening of portions of the MacArthur Highway and the adjacent Maharlika Highway in the city proper.
The road-widening project has been a big boon to the city as it has served to encourage more investors into the city.
Cojuangco and President Gloria Arroyo helped finance the construction of the public market's building 1 while building 2 was financed from a loan acquired by the city from the government-run Land Bank of the Philippines.
Both market buildings are now connected.
Perez said other strategies adopted by the city to perk up business at the public market include the provision of a stand by generator and the installation of elevator in each building.
After only 11 years of cityhood, Urdaneta is now the leading city in the Ilocos Region in terms of financial income. It remains, however, a second class city like Dagupan, San Carlos, and Laoag.—LM
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