North Luzon Expressway. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The toll road arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said an 8-kilometer elevated expressway linking the northern and southern parts of Metro Manila will be completed by 2017, once long-delayed government approvals are secured early this year.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. is specifically waiting for the National Economic and Development Authority board to allow the P18-billion expressway to “revert” to its original proponent status, MPTC president Ramoncito Fernandez said on Tuesday.
That resolution of this issue, which has been delayed for more than two years now because of disagreements on how the toll road project should be implemented, would pave the way for a so-called Swiss or competitive challenge.
The delays have already pushed back the 2016 deadline of the connector toll road project, which aims to decongest key roads in Metro Manila by linking Metro Pacific’s North Luzon Expressway with the South Luzon Expressway.
“We hope that once we start [construction] we can have a connector road that will change the skyline of the metropolis by 2017,” Fernandez said in a prepared speech during the 10th anniversary of NLEx.
Once completed, Metro Pacific’s project will be one of two “connector” roads serving the capital district. San Miguel and Citra last year started on the 14.8-km Skyway Stage 3, which could be finished by early 2016, the Department of Transportation said earlier.
A Swiss challenge for Metro Pacific’s connector roads will allow other groups to submit offers to build the expressway. Under the rules, Metro Pacific has the right to match rival offers to get the project.
Its connector road, which is expected to start at the C-3 in Caloocan City and end in PUP Sta. Mesa in Manila, was submitted as an unsolicited proposal during the previous administration.
During his speech, Fernandez highlighted progress made in the company’s toll road portfolio, which includes the Manila Cavite Expressway and the recently-awarded Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway. The company has also been making investments in toll road projects in Thailand and Vietnam.