The government has agreed to spend over P4 billion for a project aimed at replacing regular tricycles with “e-trikes.”
E-trikes, or tricycles that run on saved electricity, are meant to help address pollution.
The Department of Budget and Management said the government would spend a total of P4.27 billion for the e-trike project as counterpart funding.
The project, estimated to cost a total of P21.67 billion, will be funded largely by the Asian Development Bank.
Of the government’s counterpart funding, P506 million has been released, the DBM said.
The ADB piloted the project over a year ago with the purchase of a few units of e-trikes.
The goal of the project is to have 200,000 units of e-trikes in Metro Manila and 3.5 million across the country by 2017 to replace the ones that run on conventional fuel.
Under the project’s framework, e-trikes will be offered to tricycle drivers on a lease or lease-to-own terms.
The amount to be saved from doing away with fuel may be used by the drivers to pay for the e-trikes, the ADB said in a report on the project.
“Now that the Aquino administration has released the government’s fund counterpart for the e-Trike project, we can expect to see more of these e-Trikes plying the routes taken by traditional tricycles, so that the electronic vehicles can take commuters to various drop-off points within their communities,” DBM Secretary Florencio Abad said in a statement.
The cost of the project covers not only the purchase of e-trikes but also cost of hiring project consultants and conduct of surveys of local government units that will participate in the e-trike project.
“Using innovative technology and competitive financing, this project will achieve widespread adoption of electric tricycles and the development of a sustainable local e-trike manufacturing industry,” the ADB said in the project report.
The ADB said the e-trike project was expected to help temper the increase in oil importation and address pollution concerns.
“This initiative will increase the environment’s carrying capacity to support the country’s sustained economic growth,” the ADB said.