CAVITEX Infrastructure Corp. is seeking a 20-centavo-per-kilometer increase in toll rates from the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to recoup its P800-million investment in widening the Manila-Cavite Expressway, according to its chief.
Luigi L. Bautista, the president of the company, said his group would soon seek the rate adjustment totaling P1.40 for the whole 7 kilometers of road widened, or about 20 centavos per kilometer.
The practice, he explained, is to round the total amount down. Hence, the total tariff adjustment may only be P1 for the whole stretch.
“We still have to file a petition with the TRB. It is not automatic,” Bautista said in a chance interview.
The company is at the tail end of completing its road-widening efforts to add one lane each for both directions of the R-1 section of the expressway—stretching from Miaa to Zapote.
Once completed, the section will have four operational lanes each.
“We will file the petition shortly. We’re just waiting for the certificate of substantial completion to be given to us,” Bautista explained. “We may file it this month, as soon as we get the certificate.”
The widening of the roads is just the first phase of the company’s expansion program for the expressway.