NLEX Corp. said net income in 2017 rose 14 percent to P4.64 billion from P4.09 billion in 2016 mainly due to the robust vehicle traffic growth in North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
The company’s toll revenues reached P11.6 billion last year, up 10 percent from 10.5 billion in 2016 due to higher traffic volume in NLEx and SCTEx.
NLEx vehicle traffic reached an average of 237,046 daily entries last year, 8 percent higher than in 2016, while traffic in SCTEx reached 54,566 in daily vehicle entries, up 21 percent.
NLEx contributed 84 percent of toll revenues, while SCTEX cornered 16 percent.
In addition to toll revenues, the company generated revenues of P174.4 million arising from advertising, toll services and utility facilities and rental and service income in 2017 from P157.4 million in 2016.
The North Luzon Expressway spans approximately 95 kilometers, or 527-lane kilometers, and serves an average of 237,046 a day. It is the main infrastructure backbone that connects Metro Manila to Central and Northern Luzon.
SCTEx, meanwhile, is a 94-km, 2×2 expressway stretching from Subic-Tipo to La Paz, Tarlac, connecting the special economic zones in Subic and Clark and Olongapo City, to Tarlac City.
The toll road company earlier budgeted P19 billion in capital expenditures this year to build new expressway projects to help solve Metro Manila’s traffic bottlenecks.
It is spending to build the urban portions of North Luzon Expressway, such as the Harbor Link Segment 10 (including the R10 Section in Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas City) and the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road project.
Expected to open this year, Harbor Link Segment 10 is a 5.7-kilometer elevated expressway traversing NLEx from Smart Connect Interchange and cross over Mac Arthur Highway in Valenzuela City with down ramps along C3/5th Avenue Interchange in Caloocan City.
When Harbor Link is fully completed, travel between the Ports of Manila and NLEx is expected to take only 10 minutes, providing direct expressway access for commercial vehicles, specially heavy trucks.