TANZA, Cavite—Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade inspected last Saturday progress made at the Cavite Gateway Terminal Phase 1 Project in Tanza, Cavite.
The Cavite Gateway Terminal Phase 1 will accommodate barges, which will ferry 20-and 30-footer container trucks now plying the routes of Metro Manila from Subic Port in the North and Batangas Port from the South.
Dubbed as the first barge terminal of its kind in the Philippines, the project will have 550 ground slots for containers.
Currently, International Container Terminal Services Inc., the project’s proponent, is completing the Cavite Gateway Terminal Phase I, an off-the-road facility that will accommodate barges that ferry 20-footer and 30-footer container trucks that ply the routes of Metro Manila from Subic and Batangas.
The terminal, which will allow transshipment of cargo from Manila port to Cavite via barges, is designed to support 115,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year, translating to about 140,000 fewer truck trips traveling city roads annually.
Cavite Gateway Terminal, which will also have 550 ground slots for containers, is being built on a 6-hectare property in Tanza. It has a price tag of $30 million.
An estimated two to three hours of ferry time, with initial multiple pickup locations from Cavite-Manila, Cavite-Batangas and other future routes, such as Cavite-Subic, this facility will have empty depot.
The project is expected to decongest Metro Manila traffic by reducing the number of cargo trucks plying its roads by 50 percent.
“Kahit papaano ’pag nawala iyong mga mahahabang truck na katumbas ng hanggang tatlong sasakyan, mararamdaman natin ang kaunting ginhawa [With the absence of trucks the length of which are equivalent to three vehicles each, we would experience minor comfort],” Tugade said in a statement.
Now at over 90-percent completion and with over 300 manpower full time, the Cavite Gateway Terminal project is slated for launch before the end of June, nearly two months late than the government’s target month of March.