MPTC wants to link Naic and General Trias in new toll road plan

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is eyeing to build a 25-kilometer toll road connecting the proposed Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge and Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax), providing motorists a direct route from Mariveles to General Trias.

Raul Ignacio, president and general manager of MPTC unit Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC), told reporters last week they were in talks with the provincial government of Cavite for the expressway project.

READ: Bataan-Cavite bridge gets P64B funding from China-based lender

The initial design involves establishing a tollway from Naic—the endpoint of Bataan-Cavite bridge—all the way to the General Trias segment of Calax.

He estimated the project could cost P40 billion, but the final figure would depend on the number of interchanges to be constructed.

Ignacio stressed, however, that the interconnection was hinged on the realization of the Bataan-Cavite bridge.

The latter, a 32-km interisland bridge from Barangay Alas-asin in Mariveles, Bataan, through Manila Bay and up to Barangay Timalan, Naic, Cavite, is expected to begin construction this year. It secured last month a P64-billion financing from China-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

One of the current administration’s flagship infrastructure projects, the bridge is expected to reduce travel time between the provinces to 45 minutes from 5.5 hours.

Infrastructure projects

It is also among the big-ticket infrastructure projects of Cavite, which has an estimated P2 trillion worth of public-private partnership projects in the pipeline.

Earlier, it was also reported that the province was planning on establishing a busway system linking Naic to Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex), another toll road under MPTC’s portfolio.

READ: ADB pledges $2.1B for Bataan-Cavite bridge

Calax is a toll road connecting Cavitex and South Luzon Expressway.

The Laguna segment of Calax is now fully operational. For the Cavite portion, 95 percent of the right-of-way has been acquired. The Pangilinan-led company aims to open the Governor’s Drive interchange in General Trias this year.

In a separate development, MPTC is set to formalize this week the acquisition of a 35-percent stake in the 676-km Trans-Java toll road in Indonesia. This deal is estimated to bring in P30 billion in annual revenues for the company. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad