Toll increases from March 1 for five highways (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: Road users will have to pay higher tolls for five major highways beginning March 1.

The highways affected are the North-South Expressway (PLUS), Sprint/Kerinchi/Damansara Link highways, Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Expressway (AKLEH), Sungai Besi Highway and the New Pantai Expressway (NPE).

For the PLUS highway, it will be an increase of 5%.

This means toll charges from Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah to Kempas in Johor would increase from RM108 to RM113.40.

A trip from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh would increase from RM26.50 to RM27.90.

For the Sprint/Kerinchi/Damansara Link highways, it will be an increase of between 30sen and 50sen.

The Sungai Besi Highway will see an increase of 10sen, while the AKLEH and NPE will be increased by 50sen and 40sen respectively.

In announcing this, Works Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Zin Mohammed said the increase was minimal and hoped the public understood that the increase was stipulated in the concession agreements that the government had signed.

“The increase was actually due in January last year but we had postponed it until now. This means the government has been paying compensation for 14 months.”

Mohd Zin said the compensation amounted to RM277mil with RM177mil going to PLUS, RM38mil to Sprint and RM30mil to AKLEH, adding that the impending increase was half of what was scheduled.

“There is a shortfall of 5%,” he said during a press conference at the Works Ministry on Wednesday.

The announcement for the increase however comes almost immediately after two toll booths were abolished recently.

The Salak Jaya toll (south-bound) was abolished on Tuesday while the toll at PJS2 (Kuala Lumpur-bound) of the New Pantai Expressway was abolished on Feb 13.

Mohd Zin said the abolishments were unrelated to the toll increase and that it should not be politicised, stressing that it was a contractual obligation on the government’s part.

He said more importantly was that alternative routes existed for all highways in the country, adding that this was the case for all highways but added that more could be done to improve the alternative routes.

When pointed out that the roads were jammed especially in the city regardless of whether it was a highway or an alternative route, Mohd Zin said it was a big challenge having to manage the amount of traffic Kuala Lumpur has.

“Kuala Lumpur has 3.5 million vehicles for a population of about five million people.

Tokyo only has 1.3 million vehicles for a populationf 20 million,” Mohd Zin said, concluding that more effort was needed to improve public transport.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/26/nation/20090226112045&sec=nation

Peh...While we are facing nationwide economy crisis, people are jobless, factory n companies closing and some of Malaysians have become 'miskin', the government managed to increase the tolls for five major highways. Wow, that's a 'relief'.....

The best part is AKLEH where most people are using everyday to reach center of KL with less traffic jam. They increased for about 40-50 cents, meaning it's about 33% of current toll charge. Thank you government. Thank you very much. We all appreciate it.

Maybe the message behind this, is for us to stay home. We dont need to go to work as our salaries have been cut off and cost of living is increasing.

So the best way for us to encounter this, is to start using bikes. Start now before the government start making us bikers to pay tolls. lol