Bloomberry Resorts Corporation is taking the first step to ensure that prospective tourists have an easy and accessible way to go to Pagcor’s Entertainment City by agreeing to shell out a significant chunk of moolah in order to help fund a road project that will connect the soon-to-be-built casino complex and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The 5.2-kilometer road will be called the “NAIA Expressway” and will run from the airport to Roxas Boulevard, a stone’s throw away from where Entertainment City is expected to rise.
The road was approved to be built by the National Economic and Development Authority Board last month at an expected cost of Php 13.575 billion. In order to alleviate the costs of the project, Pagcor previously said that as part of securing licenses to build casinos at Entertainment City, the four casino operators would be open to contributing a cost of at least Php 1 billion each to help the project get off the ground. The funds will come as part of their investment commitment to the government agency.
Construction of the elevated road is expected to start later this year and is estimated to be completed in 2015.
In such case, it’s easy to understand why this new expressway is important for all the casino operators that will occupy Entertainment City. Traffic is a well-known problem in the area surrounding the airport so it’s a pretty good idea to build a road – in this case, it’s a four-lane elevated expressway – that will make it easier for people, tourist or not, to have a road that will make it faster for them to scratch their proverbial gambling itch.
To their credit, Bloomberry has taken the initiative and has signed off on providing their share of the funds. It certainly helps their cause considering that their upcoming integrated casino and resort, Solaire Manila, is already in development, having begun construction a few months ago with an expected opening time table for the first quarter of 2013.
