MPIC unit allots P11.5 B for toll roads

MANILA, Philippines - The tollways arm of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has earmarked P11.5 billion for its capital expenditures to bankroll the completion of major toll roads.

Ramoncito Fernandez, president of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), said this year’s budget would go to the expansion of the 86.7-kilometer North Luzon expressway (NLEX) as well as its integration with the 94-km Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway (SCTEX).

This year’s budget is almost double the P6-billion budget for capital expenditures allocated by MPTC last year and accounts for almost a fourth of the P50-billion capital expenditures of MPIC.

MPTC has submitted the planned expansion of NLEX that would entail investments of between P4 billion and P5 billion. The proposed expansion would entail the construction of an additional lane for both the North bound and South bound of the expressway from Sta. Rita to San Fernando.

As early as November of 2013, 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.

MPTC owns 71 percent of Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) that operates NLEX and SCTEX; 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 Co. Ltd. (DMT) via FPM Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.

Likewise, the company intends to spend P650 million for the integration of NLEX and SCTEX. MNTC expects to take over SCTEX later this month after no bidders showed up during the “Price Challenge” undertaken by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) last Friday.

Fernandez said the capital expenditures this year would also cover the completion of P1.59-billion Segment 9 linking NLEX to the MacArthur Highway in Valenzuela City and the P10-billion Segment 10 or the NLEX Harbor Link connecting all the way to the Port Area district in Manila.

The 2.42-km Segment 9 would be completed in March paving the way for the construction of the 5.65-km elevated Segment 10. MNTC is projecting an average daily traffic of 27,000 vehicles for Segment 9 during its first year. This is expected to increases further once Segment 10 opens. Daily traffic is estimated to reach 53,000 by the year 2037.