MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is ready to face a new market in the country with the recent opening of its Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), the group’s first toll road project outside Luzon.
CCLEX was inaugurated last April 27 and opened to the public on April 30.
“It’s a new market for us, and in a way, Cebuanos are not used to paying toll. I understand many, many years ago, one of the two bridges had a tolling arrangement, but they dropped it eventually. I don’t know for what reason. So this will be a new arrangement for them,” MPTC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.
“So we don’t know how they will react, but it certainly will bring them much more quickly to either side of Mactan and Cebu,” Pangilinan said.
In 2016, MPTC wholly-owned subsidiary Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. entered into a concession agreement with the Cebu City and Municipality of Cordova under which it was granted concession rights to finance, construct, and operate the 8.9 kilometer CCLEX, including the right to collect toll fees over a 35-year concession period.
CCLEX consists of the main alignment starting from the Cebu South Coastal Road and ending at the Mactan Circumferential Road, inclusive of interchange ramps aligning the Guadalupe River, the main span bridge, approaches, viaducts, causeways, low-height bridges, at-grade road, toll plazas and toll operations center.
The P30.5 billion project is eyed to spur economic growth and boost investments not just in Cebu City and Cordova municipality, but also in the entire Cebu province and Visayas region.
Aside from modernizing Cebu’s infrastructure and transportation, MPTC, is also keeping road user safety and convenience at the forefront as it adopts an all electronic toll collection system for CCLEX.
Pangilinan said while CCLEX is expected to contribute to the earnings of MPTC this year, its impact will not be that significant yet.
“It will impact the earnings of the tollways group starting this year, not in a major way because obviously the traffic will gradually build up. It won’t be immediate,” Pangilinan said.
With a carrying capacity of two lanes per direction, CCLEX is expected to serve around 50,000 vehicles daily.
CCLEX joins MPTC’s domestic portfolio composed of the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and Cavite Laguna Expressway.
MPTC posted a core income of P3.9 billion last year, 45 percent higher than the P2.7 billion recorded the previous year on the back of higher average daily vehicle entries following the relaxation of quarantine restrictions and rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program.
The company’s system-wide vehicle entries, including both domestic and regional road networks, averaged 747,580 a day last year compared with 631,147 in 2020.
Average daily vehicle entries rose 24 percent to 483,167 in 2021 from 388,820 a year earlier, signifying continued improvement in economic activities despite recurring lockdowns.