The Board of Investments approved the P48.5-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAx) project of MPCALA Holdings Inc. as a qualified Public-Private Partnership infrastructure under the preferred activities of the current Investment Priorities Plan.
Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo cited the project’s impact in addressing the infrastructure requirement of both the business locators and the general commuting public in the Cavite and Laguna areas. The project will receive fiscal and non-fiscal incentives from the government.
“CALAx will greatly ease the movement of goods and services in the area, further boosting the economic activities in the Southern Tagalog region and create jobs,” said Rodolfo, adding the infrastructure project complemented the agency’s strategy to further disperse economic activities across the regions.
The BoI under the 2017 IPP encourages local and foreign investors to locate their projects in the urban and least development areas.
Apart from the economic benefits, the CALAx project will provide faster, safer, and comfortable route for the commuting public traveling between the Bacoor and Kawit, Cavite areas and Laguna and South Luzon Expressway.
The provinces of Cavite and Laguna are rapidly growing industrial and commercial hubs in the Southern Tagalog Region. Traffic congestion is prevalent in the region’s major road networks, such as Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway and Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road.
Commercial operations of CALAx are scheduled to be operational by July 2020 with a total of 280 personnel manning the project.
The CALAx project is one of the priority projects under the PPP being implemented by the Public Works Department.
The Public Works Department obtained approval of the National Economic and Development Authority in 2015 to develop and implement the project under the Build-Transfer-Operate contractual arrangement in compliance with Republic Act No. 6957, known as the BOT Law.
MHI, a unit of Metro Pacific Group, won in the public bidding to put up the CALAx project and the right to collect fees over a 35-year concession period as a new PPP tollway infrastructure project under a concession agreement with Public Works.
The project is 44.6-kilometer, four-lane divided expressway that will link Cavitex to SLEx. It will traverse the provinces of Cavite and Laguna and connect SLEx via the Mamplasan Interchange.
CALAx will have eight interchanges access along its entire length. It is divided into two segments, the 26.48-km Cavite segment and the 18.15-km Laguna road.
The Cavite segment will start in Tirona Highway, Kawit Cavite and end in Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Cavite. The Laguna segment, meanwhile, will start in Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Cavite Interchange and up to the Greenfield property in Binan, Laguna.
The PPP Center endorsed the CALAX project for BoI approval as it is one of the priority projects under the PPP program. The PPP Center said no government subsidy was extended to MHI.
