Luzon expressway to boost MTD revenue

MANILA: Infrastructure developer MTD Capital Bhd expects its South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to emerge as a major contributor to group revenue in the second-half of this year.

Group president and chief executive officer Datuk Azmil Khalid said MTD Capital's 80-per cent subsidiary, South Luzon Tollway Corporation (SLTC), has completed Toll Road 1 and 2 of SLEX, spanning 28km from the end of the South Metro Manila Skyway at Alabang in Muntinglupa City to Calamba in Laguna.

Meanwhile, work on the 8km SLEX extension or Toll Road 3 from Calamba to the start of the STAR Tollway at Sto Thomas in Batangas, is expected to be completed by month-end.

He said the entire project would cost 11.8 billion Philippine pesos while the expected pay-back period was six years.
"Based on our financial model, the toll collection here will be equal, if not better, than the Kuala Lumpur-Kuantan highway because traffic volume here is about 170,000 passenger cars per day compared with between 60,000 and 80,000 passenger cars in Malaysia," he told Malaysian journalists ahead of the inaugural pass through the SLEX extension by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo here today.

The Filipino President, whose term ends on June 30, later officiated the ground breaking ceremony for another SLEX extension, namely Toll Road 4.

The planned expressway will go around the western boundaries of Mount Makiling, rolling through the countryside by about 50km, to reach Lucena City.

SLTC holds a 30-year concession to operate SLEX and its extensions, under a Supplemental Toll Operation Agreement, signed in 2006.

Toll Road 1 and 2 were built on an old alignment operated by Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC) under a franchise that expired in April 2007.

Azmil said construction of Toll Road 1 finished in December 2008 while Toll Road 2 in June last year but SLTC was not able to collect toll then because the toll plazas and systems had not been completed.

He said money started to flow in only after SLTC took over the operation and maintenance of the rehabilitated and upgraded tollway from PNCC on May 2, 2010 but the collection was still based on the old rates.

New rates are expected to take effect on June 30, he added.
MTD Capital had announced to Bursa Malaysia, on May 21, that the applicable toll for class 1 vehicles on Toll Road 1 and 2 would be 2.731 Philippine pesos (19.3 sen) per km compared with 0.82 Philippine pesos (5.8 sen) currently.

Azmil said Toll Road 3 was a new portion of SLEX and SLTC would collect toll on that stretch after it had been issued the certificate of completion by the government.

On Toll Road 4, he said the project would not start anytime soon.
"We still have to do engineering design and then land acquisition. We have to submit it to the government for evaluation because land acquisition is their responsibility.

"So it won't be in the next financial year. The government will have to make the decision once we submit the relevant documentation," he said, adding that the process would take another year. -- Bernama