Dewan Rakyat: Highway concession, tolls to be reviewed - NST

By : V. Vasudevan, B. Suresh Ram, Eileen Ng, R.S. Kamini and Ili Liyana Mokhtar

TOLL rates and highway concession agreements which burden the people are being reviewed in view of the rising cost of living.

Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed said a toll review mechanism to gauge traffic volume and toll collected at the 22 highways nationwide could result in lower toll and re-negotiations of the agreements.

If the traffic volume is high, there should not be a need to increase toll rates at any particular route, he said at a press conference at Parliament Lobby yesterday.

Among matters being looked into is the Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan (PLUS) highway concession, where the toll rate hike scheduled for last January has been delayed for a year.

Mohd Zin said parts of the PLUS highway would also be re-designated as "urban link" such as the stretch between Rawang and Nilai and "inter-urban exchange" such as stretches of highways passing within the areas of Ipoh, Seremban and Johor Baru.

[More at http://www.nst.com.my/Thursday/Frontpage/2234622/Article/index_html]