LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines — The House Committee on Public Works gave its thumbs down on a proposal to relocate the toll plaza of the 84-kilometer Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) to the town proper of Rosario, La Union.

Benguet Representative Ronald M. Cosalan, the committee chairman, said the proposed transfer of the expressway’s toll plaza to Rosario from its original site near Marcos Highway and Kennon Road was impractical.

Cosalan said one of the purposes of the P27-billion expressway is to enhancing the growth of the tourism industry through improved travel time.

He said that to transfer the toll plaza approximately 7 kilometers away from its original site which is close to two major roads leading to Baguio, Benguet and the Cordillera, will no longer serve the purpose of providing convenient travel to motorists visiting tourist destinations in Northern Luzon.

The lawmaker said that once the toll plaza is transferred to Rosario, as what some Pangasinan politicians want, it will be more expensive on the part of the government because more infrastructure such as flyovers will be built from the toll plaza leading to Marcos Highway and Kennon Road in order to accommodate the huge volume of motorists wanting to go up to Baguio and Benguet and enjoy the cool and romantic climate there.

The TPLEx will form part of the expressways that strand from Metro Manila up to Northern Luzon in order to improve and reduce travel time which will be beneficial to the agricultural, economic and tourism development of provinces located north of Manila.

Cosalan said the proposal of some Pangasinan congressmen to transfer the location of the expressway’s toll plaza will just be an added burden for the national government, considering that it will again result to more expenditures which is unlikely to happen, thus, the need to stick with the original plan of having the toll plaza right at the mouth of Marcos Highway and Kennon Road.

Once the highway will be completed in the next two to three years, the lawmaker claimed more foreign and domestic tourists will be enticed to visit Baguio and Benguet and the different parts of the Cordillera because they will have more time to go around the tourist destinations due to the significantly reduced travel time.

From the regular four to five hours travel from Baguio to Manila and vice versa, motorists will be able to go to their respective points of destination in Baguio and Manila in just a little over three hours passing through the TPLEX once it will be completed.

Cosalan claimed appropriate representations were already made with concerned officials of the DPWH.