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PHILIPPINE Ports Authority (PPA) is set to transfer the
maintenance and operation of the Japan-funded access
road leading to Batangas Port to another agency by next
year.
Talks on
whether to exact toll on motorists are ongoing.
PPA’s
Batangas Port management office chief Alex Cruz said
they will turn over the said port-access road in early
2009 to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The DPWH
would then have to decide on whether to exact fees
against users or only against trucks.
The
Southern Tagalog Arterial Road now goes to the entrance
of the access road leading to Batangas Port.
The
government, however, still needs to construct a
one-kilometer link to STAR Tollway and the port- access
road.
“Coming
from Manila before, it will take you two-and-a-half
hours. Now it’s two hours or less. That’s the added
advantages. And if you are carrying a 40-ft container
van, they will charge you P160—if loaded. But there will
be reduced travel time, fuel and faster turn around of
cargo, among others,” Cruz said.
The
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the
agency that funded the project, earlier asked the PPA to
develop a toll-mechanism structure before the road is
transferred to the DPWH, the main agency responsible for
the maintenance of the country’s road networks.
PPA
officials said such task is the responsibility of the
DPWH and not theirs.
PPA
assistant general manager Claro Maranan earlier said the
DPWH would decide the toll fee for the entire STAR
Tollway because of the new port-access road.
The STAR
Tollway project was also funded by the JBIC and the
Japan International Cooperation Agency. The project was
implemented by the DPWH.
It is
operated by South Luzon Tollways Corp., a joint venture
of the Philippine National Construction Corp. and the
MTD Manila Expressway Corp., a subsidiary of MTD Capital
of Malaysia.
The
state firm was supposed to sign a memorandum of
agreement with DPWH in October last year, but was
postponed because of JBIC’s recommendation and the
salient points of the MOA were still being studied by
the lender and PPA.
The road
and fly-over cost about P336 million, and belong to
Phase II of the Batangas Port development project.
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