A TWO-LANE riverside boulevard will be constructed by the city government of Dagupan to spur tourism and further unclog traffic bottlenecks in the city’s main thoroughfares.

This was gleaned from a letter of City Legal Officer George Mejia to 53 property owners near the proposed boulevard expressing the intent of the city to acquire a portion of their respective lots for the proposed project at the banks of the Pantal river.

“We are hoping that these property owners will not charge the city as the construction of the riverside boulevard is one way of increasing the value of their real estate (and thus will be beneficial to them),” Mejia told local media last week.

“Otherwise, we will be constrained to file an action for imminent domain,” he added.

Mejia said there is already an existing roadway at the southern bank of the Pantal river which will just be widened thus the need to acquire portions of adjacent lots.

The project will complement the soon-to-be-completed Dawel-Pantal-Lucao road measuring more than four kilometers.

The proposed riverside boulevard will start at the back of the Star Plaza Hotel and end at the back of the Land Transportation Office, a distance of about one kilometer.