Infrastructure and Utilities


1. Transportation

1.a Registered Motor vehicles
The 2006 registered motor vehicles in the city increased by 35.27% or 4,964 units compared to the previous year, based on the record of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Koronadal District . Table 52 reveals a tremendous volume of motorcycles in the city. Out of 19,040 registered motor vehicle in 2006, 51.67% are trucks, 0.75% are buses and only 0.11% are trailers. Vehicle classification in the city is composed of 78.01 private, 19.16% for hire and 2.83% government vehicles. Majority of the registered motor vehicles in the city are motorcycles, followed by tricycles. The mode of transportation within the city is by means of tricycles. The people in the far-flung baranggays are also using motorcycles, popularly known as skylabs or habal-habal, to transport goods and passengers.

1.b Transport Groups/Public Utilities Vehicles (PUV)
There are 3 bus companies and 19 transport groups operating in the City of Koronadal. The Yellow Bus Line Inc. has the most number of buses while the ATS Transport has the most number of vans to serve the people of Koronadal and those who wish to come and visit Koronadal. There are 135 buses, 92 PUJs, 377 vans and 67 multicabs that serve as public utility vehicles conveying both passengers and goods from the to nearby municipalities and cities and vice versa.

2. Roads

Koronadal has a well maintained road network from the National Highway to baranggay roads. The city has a total road network of 565.80 kilometers. The city???s road density of 2.04 km/sq.km. Baranggay Zone IV has the highest road density of 18.68 km/sq.km, followed by Baranggay Zone III with 13.83 km/sq.km. Baranggay Saravia, on the contrary, has the lowest road density of 0.65 km/sq.km, followed by Baranggay Avace??a with 0.75 km/sq.km.

The city has the following administrative road network classification: National Road comprising 4.28% of the total road network or 24.23km, Provincial Road equivalent to 14.21% or 80.41 km, City Road equivalent to 35.25% or 120.19 km and Baranggay Road equivalent to 60.26% or 340.982 km. Details on types of road in each administrative road network classification of the city are shown in Table 55. Currently, length of concreted road is 108.47 km or 19.17% of the total road network; asphalted, 8.80 km or 1.56% graveled road, 427 km or 75.54% of road network; and earth road, 21.11 km or 3.73%.

The city government initiated the concreting of various provincial roads within the city in order to improve opportunities for social and economic development through improved access. In 2005, the City Government concreted 5.90 km or 7.34% of the total length of provincial road in the city, amounting to Php 36,387,100.00 In 2006, an additional 7.10 km Provincial Road amounting to Php 38,341,161.00 was concreted. Currently, the total length of concreted provincial road is 21.71 km or 27% of the total provincial road length in the city.

3. Bridges

There are 48 bridges in Koronadal with a total length of 795.60 lineal meters. 37 bridges are considered as Reinforced Concrete Deck Girder (RCDG), 4 are twin bridges, 2 are steel bridges, 2 are hanging bridges and 3 are overflow bridges. The Alejandro Melchor Bridge at Barangay Sto. Ni??o with a length of 75m is the longest among the bridges in Koronadal is presented in Table 56. 4 bridges in the City are maintained by the DPWH. The Palian Bridge constructed across the 30-meter wide Palian River at Barangay Saravia connects the National Highway from General Santos City to the city. It is a structure that marks the boundary of the Municipality of Tupi and Koronadal. Two other bridges, the Bulok Bridge, and Twin Bridge along R. Alunan Avenue are located within the urban center and the other is an RCDG Bridge at Barangay Paraiso. Moreover, 19 bridges are maintained by the Provincial Government, 9 by the City Government and 16 by the barangays.

4. Waterworks and Sewerage Facilities

4.a Water System
The distribution of water supply for commercial and domestic use in the urban center of Koronadal and Brgy. Sto. Nino is managed by the Koronadal Water District. There are 6 pumping stations and 2 water treatment facilities operated to supply the water demand in the four Zones, Barangay General Paulino Santos, Brgy. Sta. Cruz, Brgy. Morales and Brgy. Sto. Ni??o. For households in the rural barangays which are not covered by the local water district services, their sources of water for domestic use are deep wells, shallow wells and springs.

Koronadal Water District has 5,421 domestic and commercial service connection in 2004, an increase of 606 connections or 12.59% compared to the previous year. In 2005, the total number of service connections is consumption of both commercial and domestic concessionaries in 2005 is 26,651 cubic meters per month.

4.b Drainage
The concept roads of Koronadal including the national roads within the Central Business District are provided with drainage lines. During heavy rainfall, water is collected by curbs/ concrete gutters, lined canals or earth canals and drained through the Bulok Creek, a waterway that cuts across the urban center and flows towards lake Buluan on the northern part of the city.

Based on the City Engineer???s Office estimate in 2006, approximately 90% of the urban core served had either lined or earth canals. Efforts of the City Government are underway to concrete the earth canals and provide adequate drainage facilities in the city to address the perennial flooding especially within the urban center.

The city constructed lined canals at both sides of Confessor St. to junction Antipolo St. and slope protection at Demo Farm in 2005. Drainage system enhancement which included canal ditching along Balmores St. and clearing and dredging of Bulok Creek was undertaken in 2006.

4.c Irrigation System
The water coming from Roxas and Quezon mountain ranges of Koronadal that follows through rivers and creeks is the main source of water supply for irrigation in the city and the nearby municipalities. Koronadal has two River Irrigations Systems known as Marbel #1 RIS and Marbel #2 RIS, and 7 Communal Irrigation Systems (CIS) namely: Magsaysay CIS, Magsaysay Extension CIS, Topland CIS, Cacub CIS, New Pangasinan CIS, Supon CIS and Mani CIS.

Palian River is the water source of Marbel #1 RIS. It has a dam at Barangay Saravia that supplies water to the Barangays Saravia, Carpenter Hill, Concepcion, San Isidro, Zone III, Sta. Cruz, Sto. Ni??o, General Paulino Santos, Caloocan and part of Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat. The Taplan and Marbel Rivers are the water sources of Marbel #2. Its dam is located at Barangay Sto. Ni??o and serves Barangays Namnama, Avance??a and some parts of the Municipality of Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat. The Mani River with the Mani CIS dam as reservoir supplies water to Barangays Cacub, Esperanza, Mabini and San Jose.

Irrigated area during dry season in 2006 increased by 2.89% compared to previous year. Irrigator Associations in the locality served 3,588 farmers in 2006 or an increase of 40 farmer-beneficiaries, with a total service area of 4,386.17 hectares. Irrigated area during wet season is 3,472 hectares, while 3,284.57 hectares are irrigated during dry season. Abundance in rice productions and some aquatic products in the locality and nearby municipalities in the northwestern portion of the city are indications of sufficient water supply to irrigable agricultural areas.

5. Power

Electrification of Koronadal is generated by the Mindanao Grid of the Maria Cristina Hydro Electric Plant in Lanao Del Norte, operated and maintained by National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR). The power supply is distributed in the city by the South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SOCOTECO-1). The local electric company is able to supply electricity to the 27 barangays of the City. The Morales sub-station serves Koronadal, Tantangan, Tampakan and Lutayan with an existing power capacity of 20 MVA. Matulas sub-station with the capacity of 10 MVA serves portions of Koronadal and Banga.

Based on 2000 census of SOCOTECO-I, THERE ARE 27,623 potential consumers. The number of house connected as of December 2006 is 25,521 with the actual membership of 25,167, an increased by 1,820 connections or 7.37% compared to May 2005. Approximately, 87.33% of the total households of Koronadal enjoy electricity. For some rural areas in Koronadal which are not yet served by the electrification program of the local electric company (SOCOTECO I), the City Government provided generator sets with electrical accessories to the mountainous areas, and electrical materials for areas near the power sources of the local electric company.

6. Communication

6.a Telecommunications/ Wireless Communication
Telecommunications is communicating information including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance by wire, radio, visual, or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunications as presented in this section is subdivided into wireless communication, telephone systems, publications and internet.

Wireless is a term used to describe telecommunications in which electromagnetic waves instead of wires carry the signal over or the entire communication path. Common examples of wireless equipment that are in use today include: cellular phones, global positioning system, two-way radios, cordless telephone sets, home-entertainment-system control boxes where FM broadcast receivers use this technology and satellite television.

The evolution of wireless technology has brought about more specialized examples of communication such as the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) or the digital mobile phone system, general Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), General Packet Radio Service broadband and GPRS are services that provide connection to the internet for mobile phone and computer users no matter where that are located in the world. The WAP on the other hand, is a set of communication protocols that is used to standardize the way the cellular phones and radio transceivers can be used for internet access.

Data on wireless communication in the City of Koronadal is limited to the radio stations, television stations, cable television (TV) providers and cellular phone companies operating within the city.

There are 3 AM radio stations (DXMC Bombo Radyo, DXKI and DXKR Radyo Agong) and 1 FM radio station is limited to the province. A lone television network, ABS-CBN, operates within the city with coverage reaching the entire province.

Further, the people of Koronadal enjoy cable TV either through the Sugni Cable TV or Marbel Cable TV. The number of subscribers, the rates and the capacity of the Sugni Cable TV are provided in Table 66.

For cellular phone communications, Smart Communications, Globe Telecommunications and Sun Cellular offer network coverage within the city and link to the rest of the world. Out of the three companies, only Smart Communications set up its branch office in the city.

6. b Telephone Systems
The Marbel Telephone Systems, Inc. (MTSI) is the first telephone company that operated in the city. It started on September 11, 1963 and from then on the company established a series of firsts in the telephone industry in the city as well as in the province. It is the first to operate the dial system, the first digital telephone exchange equipment, the first to offer the direct distance facility and the wireless local loop system.

Currently, there are 3 telephone companies in the city: Marbel Telephone Systems, Inc. National Telephone Project (NTP) Koronadal Telephone Exchange under the DOTC and PLDT. Table 67 shows the telephone companies with their corresponding capacities and subscribers. In addition, Table 68 shows the different rates of the telephone companies.

7. Publication

Publications referred to in this section are limited to the local newspapers published in the city. Details on the frequency and area of coverage of the publications are likewise provided.

8. Internet Providers

The internet, sometimes called the ???net???, is a worldwide system of computer networks. Users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer or they can even talk directly to users at other computers.

The advent of internet in the City of Koronadal provided unparelled ease in transaction whether personal or business. For many internet users, electronic mail (e-mail) has practically replaced the postal service. Electronic mail is said to be the most widely used application on the net. Other users prefer the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or the most recent internet telephony hardware that allow real-time voice conversations.

Access to millions of pages of information is also made available using the World Wide Web (www) or the web. Web browsing is done through the most popular web browsers, the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Web browsers are now equipped with animation, virtual reality, sound, and music files.