The city of Manila is set to remove and phase out gasoline run tricycles, kuligligs and pedicabs by October, according to President turned Mayor Erap Estrada.
The 25,000 strong population of these sometimes vital, occasionally dangerous passenger vehicles will be removed from the city and replaced by electronic tricycles to reduce carbon emissions and to achieve Mayor Estrada’s goal of making the city the country’s electronic trike capital.
“By (Oct. 15), strictly there will be no more kuligligs, gasoline-run tricycles and pedicabs. We want Manila to become the e-trike capital of the Philippines and to make Manila a green city,” he said in an interview given to the Philippine Star.
The city government had initially earmarked around Php 120 million to buy 10,000 seven-seater e-trikes.
Estrada reasoned that the new, electric tricycles would be more profitable to run and operate than their gas combustion counterparts, as the government would shoulder the electric charging cost to run the vehicles.
“Tricycle drivers are paying a daily boundary of P150 and are spending P200 for their gasoline. That is P350 per day. On an e-trike, they will not spend a single centavo for gasoline. The battery charging will be shouldered by the city government,” Estrada said.
The qualified tricycle drivers and bona-fide city residents who will receive the vehicles will pay Php 150 to 200 per day for four years. They will also have to get uniforms in orange, the mayor’s trademark color.
The city will trial the program in Binondo, and each route will get its own pickup station and charging stations.
