The completion of the much-delayed Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway, or MCX, formerly called Daang Hari South Luzon Expressway project, has been moved for the nth time, this time to June 2015.
The four-kilometer MCX was the first Public-Private Partnership project bid out by Aquino administration. Conglomerate Ayala Corp. won the auction in December 2011 with a finaqncial bid price of P902 billion.
The target completion of the tollroad project, according to the conglomerate’s presentation materials during a recent analysts’ briefing, will now be on June 2015 pending the resolution of a right-of-way problem.
The conglomerate, however, said a whole organization was formed and ready to manage and operate the tollroad project once it was completed.
But up until last month, Ayala Corp. officials said the group was still planning to complete the project by the first quarter of 2015. The project has been expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2014, before the schedule was moved to December 2014 due the early onset of the rainy season.
Ayala in November announced it would complete the project in the first quarter of 2015.
If Ayala Corp. is not ready to open its first PPP project, Metro Pacific-led Manila North Tollways Corp is set to launch segment 9 of the North Luzon Expressway project sometime this month.
Segment 9 will connect NLEx with MacArthur Highway in Karuhatan, Valenzuela City. It will offer motorists another entry point to NLEx, like Balintawak and Mindanao Avenue.
Once opened, segment 9 will require the same toll payment from motorists as those currently collected in the existing open system.