WILL the San Miguel Corporation-proposed elevated Efipanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) finally solve the worsening vehicular traffic problem along Metro Manila’s premiere road?
The proposal particularly provides for the construction of a 10-lane toll road on top of the current EDSA. It will basically double the current road area of EDSA.
Vehicular traffic along EDSA will certainly be better than how it currently is. However, will the additional road area be enough to have fast moving vehicular traffic in EDSA?
This project, assuming that the Duterte Administration approves it, cannot, in itself alone, solve the EDSA problem, which is essentially a function of the continuously increasing number of vehicles using the said road.
This project needs to be pursued together with other infrastructure initiatives, many of which are already in the pipeline like the NLEX-SLEX connector and the integration of the different rail transit systems.
In addition to these initiatives, the government also needs to make drastic actions to enforce discipline among motorists and passengers.
The elevated EDSA will certainly make a lot of difference in solving the EDSA problem. Without it, we cannot look forward to the convenience provided by additional road area.
The most interesting aspect of the SMC proposal is the provision giving the government the right to buy back the road at any time after construction and buy the same back at cost.
While the proposed toll road appears to be a business venture for SMC, the inclusion of the buy-back provision reflects SMC’s commendable intent to contribute to putting in place a solution to the EDSA problem. The buy-back-at-cost provision of the SMC proposal shows that profit is not its fundamental consideration.
The elevated EDSA, even if it remains to be a toll road, is still economically beneficial to motorists as faster travel will mean lesser costs in terms of gasoline expenses and travel time. The same will also be beneficial to our economy in general as it has been established in previous studies that the cost of Metro Manila traffic problem is already billions of pesos.
On the part of SMC, even if it does not earn a profit from this project (should the government decides to buy the elevated EDSA right after its completion), it will also benefit as its vehicles and employees are also among the users of the said road.
This kind of initiative is the better variant of public-private partnership – one where a private business organization subordinates the interests of its shareholders to the interest of the public and the country.
