MPCALA Holdings Inc. projects completing the entire 45-kilometer Cavite-Laguna Expressway project by next year.
However, this was premised on government success at resolving all right-of-way (ROW) issues for which the enterprise had been given complete assurance.
“The government commits to fully fund right-of-way (ROW). Within the year, if we are able to get the properties, we can complete (CALAX) by next year. It really depends on the acquisition of the right of way,” Raul Ignacio, MPT South president and general manager, said.
At the Department of Public Works and Highways, officials said ROW acquisition for the CALAX project is 79.94 percent complete. According to the agency, the Cavite side is 66.70 percent complete while the Laguna side is practically completed at 99.80 percent.
DPWH officials earlier said the Department of Budget and Management allocated P2 billion for CALAX right-of-way acquisition alone.
The CALAX operation segment at present begins at Mamplasan in Binan, with interchanges at the Laguna Technopark, Laguna Boulevard, Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, up to the Silang East Interchange.
Subsection 4 or the Silang (Aguinaldo) segment is 65 percent done while more than 57 percent of the whole CALAX project already stands.
The DPWH expects to complete the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange by June after it secured an order from a local court in Tagaytay City to impose the writ of possession on the remaining 15,650 square meters of land needed to complete the project.
Once done, CALAX will link the busiest highway in Cavite—the Aguinaldo Highway—and help decongest major thoroughfares in the province and Laguna. The interchange will serve even more motorists, including some 298,000 Silang residents, given the reduced congestion.
MPCALA Holdings Inc. is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the toll road development arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
MPTC is the biggest toll road developer and operator in the Philippines. Aside from CALAX and CAVITEX, it also holds the concession rights over North Luzon Expressway, the NLEX Connector Road, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu.
