MPIC P25-billion project

Metro Pacific files P25-billion project linking Cavite, Tagaytay and Batangas

Posted on June 27, 2017 - Business World

INFRASTRUCTURE conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has submitted to the government a P25-billion unsolicited proposal to build an expressway connecting Cavite, Tagaytay and Batangas.

“We have an alignment proposal to the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways). It’s called the Cavite-Tagaytay-Batangas Expressway, CTBEx,” MPCALA Holdings, Inc. President and CEO Luigi L. Bautista said in a recent interview.

MPCALA Holdings is a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the tollways arm of MPIC. Mr. Bautista said the project would cost “about P25 billion” and had been submitted to the DPWH.

“It’s an extension of CALAX (Cavite-Laguna Expressway). So it will start from Silang interchange of CALAX, all the way to Tagaytay, then all the way to Nasugbu. It’s about 45, 46 kilometers,” he said.

The Metro Pacific group earlier broke ground for the Laguna segment of the P35.43-billion CALAX project. The Cavite segment is set to start construction by September and MPCALA will sign the construction contract with Leighton by end June.

The CALAX project involves the construction of a 44.6-kilometer four-lane toll road between the Cavite Expressway (CAVITEx) in Kawit, Cavite and the SLEx-Mamplasan Interchange.

Mr. Bautista said the company had yet to finish the feasibility study for the project. If its alignment is approved by the DPWH, it will be an unsolicited proposal, he added.

“If we get the original proponent status, that’s when we will do the detailed engineering design,” the MPCALA executive added.

The proposal will not have any conflict with San Miguel Corp.’s P27-billion proposal to build an alternative toll road that will link Tagaytay to Metro Manila via Cavite and Batangas, he said.

He said San Miguel’s Tagaytay-Batangas project will come from STAR (Southern Tagalog Arterial Road) while the company’s project will come from CALAx, and going to Tagaytay.

“Sa kanila, STAR, so magsasalubong (they will meet),” Mr. Bautista said.

The proposed 29-kilometer toll road of San Miguel called Tanauan-Tagaytay Expressway is envisioned to be an extension of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx). It is envisioned to start from SLEx toll road 3 passing through Tanauan City in Batangas and the municipalities of Silang, Amadeo and Indang in Cavite all the way to Tagaytay City through the Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway.

Asked whether he sees competition in the use of both expressways, Mr. Bautista said: “Tingin ko wala kasi ang motorists na gagamit noong sa amin are motorists from Manila. Iyong gagamit ng sa kanila are motorists coming from Batangas (I think there won’t be. The motorists who will use ours are from Manila. Theirs will be coming from Batangas).”

Earlier, MPIC said it would submit to the government next month a P50-billion unsolicited proposal for an elevated expressway along C-5 road in Ortigas to Commonwealth, which is expected to decongest traffic in the area.

The proposed elevated road project will serve as an alternate route to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), bypassing EDSA and the Balintawak toll plaza.

Aside from the C5-link project, MNTC had proposed building an expressway that will connect Sangley Airport in Cavite to its Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEx). Segment-5 is a 9.80-km., four-lane divided expressway proposed as a replacement to the original Segment 5 alignment that was taken over by the DPWH and now designated as the Centennial Road. The proposed link will connect CAVITEx to Rosario, Cavite and the Sangley Airport. Sangley Airport is in San Antonio, Cavite City, on a peninsula jutting out into Manila Bay.

MNTC is a subsidiary of MPIC, which is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

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By Imee Charlee C. Delavin