The tollways arm of Metro Pa-cific Investments Corp. is hoping that its petitions for toll-rate increase before the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) will be approved before it jump-starts its multibillion-peso expansion initiatives for the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex).

Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) President Rodrigo E. Franco said the company’s design proposal to expand the expressway to the North has been approved by the regulator last month.

“But we still have to negotiate the investment recovery. It is a P5-billion investment,” he said. “It will add one lane on each direction, from Santa Rita to San Fernando, and then
another lane in Santa Inez.”

The target, he said, will depend on when the whole proposal will be approved. “We can start construction immediately after it is approved, as it doesn’t require the acquisition of any right-of-way,” Franco added.

The executive is also hoping that the regulator approves the investment-recovery scheme soon.

“It is not necessarily a toll-rate adjustment. There are several ways of investment recovery, like direct reimbursement from the government, extension of concession period, or toll hike,” he said.

But still, Franco’s team is assuming that its long-delayed
toll-rate hike will be approved by the TRB before the expansion
initiative starts.

“We’ll be assuming that there will be a toll hike. Before we implement the project, we have to reach an agreement first on the investment recovery; that is part of the negotiation,” he said.

He noted: “But the periodic toll- rate adjustment is a separate issue on the investment on the Nlex expansion.” The toll regulator has not acted on the company’s two petitions, one filed in 2012 and another filed in 2014.

The first petition was due on first January 1, 2013. The second one, submitted on September 30 last year, would bring the cumulative toll-rate adjustment to 15 percent, of which 12 percent is long overdue.

The concession that the Pangilinan-controlled company holds allows for toll adjustments every two years.

Current toll fees at the thoroughfare (from Mindanao Avenue to Santa Ines) amount to P218 for Class 1 vehicles (cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans); P544 for Class 2 vehicles (two-axle trucks, buses and vans); and P652 for Class 3 vehicles (trucks and trailers with three or more axles).

Metro Pacific is the largest toll-road operator in the Philippines. It recently bagged the Cavite-Laguna Expressway deal from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

In a related development, at least two business groups are expecting the best and the worst for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway, possibly the most controversial public-private partnership deal that the government has awarded so far.

Despite all the positive news that came with the rebidding of the contract, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines External Vice President Henry J. Schumacher is still not convinced that the government made the right decision, when it called on for the rebidding of the project.

Source: Business Mirror