DRIVERS TO MALAYSIA, TAKE NOTE
PETALING JAYA : Malaysia said it would go ahead with the proposed 10 percent toll hike for the North-South Expressway with effect from 1 January 2005.
Works Minister S. Samy Vellu said: "The toll rates for the North-South expressway will be increased from 12.01am, January 1. It will proceed as planned.
"This was discussed at the Cabinet meeting yesterday," he told reporters after opening 'ERA Consumer Malaysia's Public Consultation on Promoting Change Through Community Partnership: Empowering the Malaysian Indian' at the Sunway Lagoon.
Mr Samy Vellu said the people and Members of Parliament (MPs) should understand that the government could no longer bear the burden of subsidising toll rates.
He said if the toll rates were not increased, the goverment would have to pay RM154 million a year to the expressway's concessionaire, Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan (PLUS) Berhad.
Earlier in the week, during a sitting of the Dewan Rakyat the MPs voiced opposition to the government's move to allow PLUS to increase the toll rates in accordance with the concession agreement signed between the government and the company.
Mr Samy Vellu also announced that the KM303 stretch of the North-South Expressway near Gua Tempurung in Perak, which was closed to south bound traffic following a mudslide on October 11, would be opened to all traffic from December 17.
To another question, Samy Vellu said the massive congestion at Subang Jaya would ease after the completion of an RM160 million elevated highway, which is now under construction. - CNA