MANILA – Cabinet members of the inter-agency Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-ICC) have cleared the P122.8-billion project to build an expressway that would circle the Laguna de Bay.

Cosette Canilao, executive director of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center, told reporters today that the Cabinet committee of the NEDA-ICC has endorsed the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike (LLED) Project for President Benigno Aquino III’s approval.

After approval by the NEDA board, which the President chairs, the project would be offered to the private sector, Canilao said.

Of the total P122.8 billion budget, P64.9 billion would be allotted for constructing the expressway dike and P57.89 billion for land reclamation.

The project has the following components:

– A 47-kilometer expressway dike with two (2) sections as follows: Bicutan-Calamba and Calamba-Los Baños; and

– Reclamation of 500-700 hectares of raw land and horizontal development of the same for mixed use.

The project aims to provide a high-standard highway that will speed up traffic between the southern part of Metro Manila and Laguna, as well as a dike that would mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake.

The proposed alignment runs 500 meters off the shoreline of the Laguna Lake.

The LLED is among the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) PPP projects, which also includes the P35.42-billion Cavite Laguna Expressway (CALAX).

To date, the agency has awarded two other PPP projects, namely the P2.01 billion Daang Hari-SLEX to the Ayala group, and the P15.52 billion NAIA Expressway to Optimal Infrastructure of San Miguel Corp.

 

22 April 2014

By Darwin G. Amojelar