SCTEX toll rate may go up pending BCDA request for an increase

MANILA, Philippines - The toll fare in the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) may go up after the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) asked the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) for a toll hike.

In a chance interview, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp (MPTC) president and chief executive Ramoncito S. Fernandez said that the toll hike has yet to be approved. Metro Pacific has won the right to operate the tollway.

Fernandez said that increase will be slightly higher than the 12-percent hike they requested for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). He said the toll for the SCTEX is one of the cheapest at P2 per kilometer.

The users of the SCTEX have gone up by 30 percent to 22,000 to 24,000 per day, Fernandez said. Soon, he said that they will be implementing an integration of the SLEX and SCTEX for a seamless travel to Subic. Currently, there are five stops when going to Subic but he said that by fourth quarter of next year there will only be two stops.

This, he said, would entail the integration of toll collection because right now there are two systems being used.

For Metro Pacific, Fernandez said they are undertaking the P10 billion Segment nine and 10 and the P21-billion NLEX and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX).

Segment 10 is linking McArthur Highway in Valenzuela to Port Area in Manila while Segment 9, which will connect McArthur Highway to NLEX. Another upcoming project of MPTC is Segment 11, an elevated road project to connect the North Harbor area to Buendia in Makati.

The three projects make up the second phase or expansion of NLEX. Phase 2 consists of four road projects: the just-opened P2.1-billion Segment 8.1 or the NLEX-Mindanao Avenue Link, a 2.7-kilometer expressway that connects NLEX at its Valenzuela junction to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City providing motorists with additional entry and exit ramps to the NLEX; Segment 8.2 which will link Mindanao Avenue to Katipunan Avenue and to C5; Segment 9, 10, and 11

For next year, Fernandez said that the government is developing at least seven road projects that will be included in the Public Private Partnership. These are the NLEX to Mac Arthur, Valenzuela and North Harbor, the expansion of the Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT1) by 12 kilometers to Bacoor Cavite, the expansion of LRT 2 until Masinag, the connection of the NLEX North Balintawak to Buendia, the Cavite Laguna (CALA) expressway road, the Tarlac Pangasinan La Union Expressway (TPLEX) and the seamless expressway or the connection of the NLEX and the SCTEX.