UEM-MARA to build P5.55-B Manila-Cavite toll road

Local firm UEM-MARA is investing an additional P5.55 billion for the construction of a toll road that will reduce travel time between Manila and Cavite, the 21-kilometer Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway Project (MCTEP).

The new toll road is expected to increase accessibility and improve the flow of goods and services. This, in turn, will fuel economic activity that will result in positive economic growth in terms of employment and income.

It has a strong and positive impact in investments in Cavite, particularly in industry, and will accelerate the rate of economic growth of the highway corridor.

The expressway would have three phases. Phase 1 is the R1 Expressway of the Coastal Road, Phase 2 is the R1 Extension and Phase 3 is the C5 Link Expressway.

The additional investment is for the second phase of the project, the R1 Extension Expressway, which connects Zapote and Kawit, Cavite. It is a seven kilometer dual-lane expressway. This phase expected to be completed by January next year.

Since the project is in line with President Arroyo’s 10-point agenda for the creation of transport logistics system that will facilitate the decongestion of Metro Manila, ensuring efficient linkages between its business centers and nearby provinces, the Board of Investments (BOI) provided the project tax perks.

The activity falls under physical infrastructure – development of tollroads and highways projects under the  build-operate-transfer (BOT) law.

The project will relieve the financial and administrative burden of the government on infrastructure project, allowing the government to allocate budgetary funds to other much-needed projects because it is in support of the government’s commitment to facilitate private sector participation in infrastructure development funding.

In the 1980s, the coastal road was a 6.6-kilometer, two-lane asphalt road linking Parañaque and Las Piñas.

Years later, the Public Estates Authority entered a joint venture with a Malaysian group, Majilis Amanah Rakyat (MARA)/Renong Berhad for the construction and completion of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway, then commonly called R-1 Expressway, and the expansion, extension and modernization of other  roadway and tollway systems.