MPIC tollways unit submits P5-B plan for expansion of 86.7-km NLEX

MANILA, Philippines - The tollways arm of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has submitted to the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) an investment plan for the proposed expansion of the 86.7-kilometer North Luzon expressway (NLEX).

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president Ramoncito Fernandez said the plan submitted to the TRB last month would entail investments of between P4 billion and P5 billion.

“The TRB has already called our attention on service level potential deterioration in the north of NLEX because utilization is already reaching the capacity ergo the need to expand. We have submitted an investment proposal to the TRB,” Fernandez said.

He pointed out that the proposed expansion would entail the construction of an additional lane for both the north bound and south bound of the expressway from the San Fernando exit up to the Dau exit.

“It’s an additional lane from San Fernando and up north bound and southbound. It is still pending TRB approval,” Fernandez said.

As early as November last year, TRB executive director Edmundo Reyes Jr. directed operators of major expressways including NLEX, South Luzon expressway (SLEX), and the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex) to prepare their expansion programs due to high traffic volume by 2018.

“If we don’t do anything, by 2018 certain stretches of NLEX and SLEX will be like EDSA. Cars keep adding every year and we will need additional lanes, also space at the exits, also toll plazas and tellers, structures, road widening,” Reyes earlier said.

MPTC owns 71 percent of Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) that operates NLEX and the 94-km Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway; 100 percent of Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. that operates the 14-km Cavitex; 46 percent of Tollways Management Corp (TMC); and 29.45 percent of Thailand’s Don Muang Tollway Public Company Ltd (DMT) via FPM Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.

The average daily vehicle entries in NLEX rose six percent to 181,448 for the first nine months of the year while that of Cavitex increased eight percent to 109,141.

Meanwhile, MNTC reported that it booked a 6.4 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of the year.

MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco said in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that earnings of MNTC reached P1.82 billion from July to September or about P110 million higher compared to the P171 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Franco attributed the increase to the historic traffic volume seen this year at the North Luzon expressway (NLEX), strong vehicle sales, stable fuel prices, and the rapid development around the NLEX service area.

“The company is poised to set new record-high annual traffic volume for the third straight year after ending the lean season within the range of the expected slowdown in traffic growth during the third quarter,” he added.

This pushed up MNTC’s net toll revenues by four percent to P5.47 billion from January to September while core income grew six percent to P1.84 billion.