San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. are set to submit by early next month a final joint offer to the Cavite provincial government for an expressway connecting Cavite and Batangas provinces and traversing Tagaytay City.
“The final joint agreement will be submitted in the next two weeks,” Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said in a Viber message.
San Miguel and MPIC had agreed in principle to jointly develop the expressway after submitting separate proposals last year to the Cavite provincial government and the Department of Public Works and Highways, respectively.
Remulla said San Miguel and MPIC would now submit a revised alignment for the Cavite-Batangas Expressway project. The two conglomerates are the largest toll road operators in Luzon and the Visayas and plan to build more expressways to improve connectivity in the country.
The provincial government earlier approved the P27-billion unsolicited proposal of San Miguel Holdings Corp., the infrastructure unit of SMC, for the 27.06-kilometer CBEX.
CBEX will traverse Silang, Amadeo, Tagaytay, Indang, Mendez and Alfonso in Cavite and Nasugbu in Batangas. It was shorter than the proposed toll road submitted by MPIC.
San Miguel also secured a 35-year concession to design, build, operate and maintain the four-lane, 61-kilometer toll road or the Nasugbu-Bauwan Expressway for P44.77 billion.
NBEX, which begins in Barangay Kaylaway, Nasugbu town, runs parallel to Tagaytay-Nasugbu and Palico-Balayan highways. The terminus of NBEX connects to the proposed CBEX which leads to Tagaytay and Silang.
Metro Pacific Tollway Corp. in 2018 proposed to the DPWH a similar project that would connect Cavite and Batangas through Tagaytay City.
The DPWH granted the original proponent status to MPTC for the proposed P22.4-billion Cavite-Tagaytay Batangas Expressway—a 50.4-kilometer toll road that will connect Cavite and Batangas, with a spur road to Tagaytay City and ultimately terminating in Nasugbu and another spur road to Tuy, Batangas.
CTBEX was expected to decongest about 23,000 vehicles daily from the nearby thoroughfares. Cavite and Batangas are rapidly-growing provinces that host major industrial parks, commercial districts and residential projects.
MPTC operates the North Luzon Expressway, Cavite Laguna Expressway, Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway and C5 Southlink Expressway. It also built and operates the 8.9-km. Cebu Cordova Link Expressway, the country’s longest and tallest bridge, which connects Mactan Island through Cordova town to mainland Cebu through the South Road Properties.
SMC operates the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, the Skyway System that connects Balintawak to Makati through an elevated expressway, the South Luzon Expressway and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road.