by Aerol John Pateña/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will deploy more than 1,600 traffic personnel from April 17 to 22 on major thoroughfares, transportation terminals and other key areas in Metro Manila to manage traffic flow during the Holy Week.
Under its “Oplan Metro Alalay Semana Santa”, a “no day-off and no absent” policy will also be enforced among traffic enforcers from Holy Wednesday until Easter Sunday and Monday, said Roy Taguinod, MMDA Traffic Discipline Office Director for Enforcement.
“Traffic personnel will be fielded on traffic chokepoint areas in Metro Manila such as vicinity of bus terminals, roads leading to seaports, harbors, and airports; and major churches,” Taguinod said in a statement on Thursday.
MMDA personnel will conduct random breathalyzer tests on bus drivers and those who will fail the test would not be allowed to drive unless they take a rest.
Clearing of illegal vendors on the sidewalks within the vicinity of major churches, where devotees make their Holy Week pilgrimage, will also be done this week.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will deploy 140 point-to-point (P2P) buses from April 15 to 17 and April 20 to 21 to ferry passengers that might be stranded due to the maintenance shutdown of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) system for the entire Holy Week.
The P2P buses will be operating in MRT stations from North Avenue to Taft Avenue and vice versa from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The deployment will be conducted in coordination with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Land Transportation Office, MMDA, PNP-Highway Patrol Group, and the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic.
The DOTr earlier announced that the operations of the MRT-3 will be shut down from April 15 to 21 for maintenance activities.
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