A unit of Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC) expects to spend about P22.1 billion in two infrastructure projects ? a 2.7-kilometer expressway that shall link Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and an integrated rail and toll way joint venture with state-owned Philippine National Railways to link NLEx to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx).

This was reported Thursday at a special meeting of stockholders of the MPIC unit First Philippine Infrastructure Inc., parent company of NLEx concessionaire Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC).

The project to link Mindanao Avenue to NLEx, scheduled to begin next month, is estimated to cost P2.1 billion and will be funded by a loan from Philippine National Bank, MNTC president Rodrigo Franco said.

It) will include construction of a toll plaza on Mindanao Avenue where motorists can enter and exit the expressway, thereby easing traffic congestion on the EDSA-Balintawak route. Construction is expected to be completed in April 2010.

The venture with Philippine National Railways (PNR) is estimated to cost about P20 billion, said Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of MPIC and First Philippine Infrastructure Inc. (FPII).

Under the agreement, the PNR and FPII will jointly do a pre-feasibility study for a facility that will connect the expressways by way of an integrated rail and toll way project with elevated roadways over the existing PNR line in Metro Manila.

?In the course of feasibility, we?ll get a better idea how to fund it,? Pangilinan said. ?The engineering studies will require a bit of time. But it?s something that we need to do to really reduce travel time between NLEx and SLEx.?

After completion of the project, travel time between the expressways may be reduced to 16 minutes from the present an hour or so via the EDSA or the C-5 highway, he added.

FPII president Ramoncito Fernandez said the cost of P20 billion for the venture with the PNR would be spread over a three-year period.

Shareholders at the meeting voted to change the name of MNTC to Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. Edited by INQUIRER.net