The Department of Transportation said the country’s first container barge terminal is set to open in Tanza, Cavite on Nov. 5 this year.
Cavite Gateway Terminal will allow trans-shipment of cargo from international ports in Manila to Cavite via barges and roll-on roll-off operations.
The terminal will be integrated with other major Luzon port facilities for cost-effective and time-bound access to the Cavite market.
“We are an archipelago, so this is really a no-brainer. This project is also proof that when the government and the private sector work together, beautiful things can happen,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.
CGT, which was privately funded by port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc., has a capacity of 115,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.
Dubbed as the first barge terminal of its kind in the Philippines, the project will have 550 ground slots for containers. It will accommodate barges with an estimated two to three hours of ferry time, with initial multiple pick-up locations.
Harbor Star, the barge operator for the CGT, will deploy 150 TEU barges.
Projections indicate that the terminal will result in about 140,000 fewer truck trips annually. It is also expected to reduce road traffic by almost two kilometers of trucks once fully operational.
The terminal is also only 11 kilometers away from the Cavite Export Processing Zone Authority whose users could be clients of the facility.
Passenger ferry services from Cavite to Manila and vice-versa will also be made available in the future following discussions between the government and the operator.
Construction of CGT started in October 2017 and was completed in about a year.
Barge operations started in September as part of the dry-run prior to full operations next month.
