METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan is planning to connect the two major expressways in Central Luzon and the P62.67-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project to decongest Metro Manila.
Pangilinan bared his plan after the Aquino administration awarded last week to infrastructure giant MPIC a Notice of Award for the 47-kilometer Calax, which will connect Cavite and Laguna.
A recent study showed that the country loses P2.4 billion a day in potential income from the traffic woes in Metro Manila alone.
“A truck is not supposed to be in the city,” said Pangilinan, stressing his plan to divert light and cargo trucks and other vehicles from using streets in the congested areas in Metro Manila. His specific targets are the huge vehicles traveling from the free-port zones in Pampanga, Zambales and Bataan en route to Laguna and Cavite or vice versa.
In December 2013 the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., led by Chairman Emeritus Levy P. Laus, launched the advocacy to “Decongest Metro Manila for our Country’s Sake,” following the devastation brought by Typhoon Yolanda in Central Visayas.
Laus cited a study of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which said, “The imminent movement of the West Valley Fault can trigger a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Metro Manila, the center of business and finance, the hub of investments and the seat of government in the country.”
Pangilinan has yet to disclose the specific plans on how to connect the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) in Pampanga and Bulacan and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) in Zambales and Bataan to the soon-to-be-constructed Calax. The end portion of Nlex in Balintawak, Quezon City, is about 40 km from Kawit, Cavite, where the Calax project will start. It will end at the South Luzon Expressway-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna, the Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement.
Pangilinan earlier built Nlex “connector roads” in Quezon City and Valenzuela City.
In January 2014 the Manila North Tollways Development Corp., also chaired by Pangilinan, started the construction of the 18-km road that will connect the Nlex exit in Valenzuela City to Santa Mesa, Manila.
Pangilinan’s group is infusing P32 billion for the ongoing project, which is expected to completed in 2016.