NLEx Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., is set to submit next month an unsolicited proposal to build a P50-billion elevated expressway along Circumferential Road 5, connecting Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City to Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway or Cavitex.
“We are finalizing the feasibility study. Maybe, we will submit it by July to the Department of Public Works and Highways,” NLEX president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said.
“Before, it was under TRB [Toll Regulatory Board]. It was an extension of our franchise. Now, it will be unsolicited. But because it will now be unsolicited, we have to refine the study,” he said.
Franco earlier said the company needed to complete first the P8.6-billion NLEx-C5 Link project before undertaking a new elevated expressway along C5 under an unsolicited mode.
The 7.85-kilometer NLEx-C5 Link will start from the end of Segment 8.1 of North Luzon Expressway at Mindanao Ave. and end at Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.
The C5 Link aims to decongest Metro Manila as it would provide alternative access to mainline North Luzon Expressway further east of Metro Manila, bypassing Edsa and Balintawak toll plaza.
NLEx Corp. earlier reported a net profit of P1.07 billion in January to March, up 16 percent from P922 million in the same period last year.
Total revenues in the first quarter grew 8 percent to P2.79 billion from P2.59 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2016.
The average daily traffic at NLEx increased 7 percent to 229,633 daily vehicle entries from the same period last year, while average daily traffic at Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway went up 20 percent to 51,128 daily entries.
Non-toll revenues climbed 33 percent to P47.7 million from P35.7 million a year earlier, on higher income generated from toll service facilities and advertising revenues.