C-6 project to be revived

The long-shelved P22-billion Metro Manila tollway project known as Circumferential Road 6 (C-6), which seeks to link and enhance trade and socio-economic interaction between the eastern corridor of Metro Manila and the northern and southern regions of Luzon is now being revived.

Local officials from the provinces are now asking the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to help resurrect the 30-year-old C-6 alignment project.

In a meeting, they told MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando that the C-6 project would would also serve as an alternative north-south link that will eventually decongest EDSA, C-5 and other arterial roads east of Metro Manila.

They are urging the MMDA chief, who also chairs the Regional Development Council (RDC) of the NCR, to exhaust all possible means to source funding for the costly project.

Fernando said he is considering the incorporation of the C-6 project with the ongoing Mega Manila Development Project of the RDC."We have to act to get this thing moving. It will surely decongest Metro Manila."

The outermost C-6 Road linking eastern Metro Manila to the northern and southern regions of Luzon has an estimated length of 75.45 kilometers.

Under the proposed project C-6 Road, the Metro Manila tollway will link the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway from Marilao, Bulacan to Upper Bicutan, Parañaque; the Laguna Bay Coastal Road from Bicutan to San Pedro, Laguna; and the C-6 South Segment from San Pedro to the Cavite Coastal Road in Noveleta, Cavite.

At least eight interchanges will be constructed starting from Bicutan northwards, traversing the towns of Taguig, Taytay, Antipolo, San Mateo and Rodriguez in Rizal province, and San Jose del Monte and Marilao in Bulacan.– Michael Punongbayan