Wednesday August 30, 2006
Talks on 2007 toll rates rise
KUALA LUMPUR: The Works Ministry will have discussions with five concessionaires who are scheduled to increase their toll rates next year, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said.
He said the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Syed Jamal Syed Jaafar would have talks with concessionaires for Leburaya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), the Karak Highway, Grand Saga Highway, Kesas Shah Alam and the Guthrie corridor, before a working paper was tabled in the Cabinet.
“The Cabinet will decide whether the scheduled toll increases will be allowed,” Samy Vellu told reporters after witnessing the signing of the concession agreement between the Government and South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) Holdings here yesterday.
Syed Jamal represented the Government, while SKVE Holdings was represented by its managing director Mohamed Raffe Chekku.
Samy Vellu said the scheduled increases in toll charges had already been restructured twice for the North South Expressway and once for several other concessionaires.
“The Government was initially paying RM45mil as compensation, which has now increased to RM65mil annually, to ensure that the people were not burdened with higher toll charges,” he said.
Earlier, in his speech, he said the completion of the SKVE in 2010 was expected to bring socio-economic benefits to the Klang Valley and form the second link to Westport in Pulau Indah.
He said the SKVE would ease traffic congestion from Shah Alam to Port Klang.
“The SKVE is expected to realise the state government’s vision to make Pulau Indah a free industrial zone with a distributive port concept. It will help realise a new trading state concept,” he said, adding that the SKVE would directly link Kajang to the Pulau Indah interchange through the Kuala Lumpur-Seremban highway.
He said the SKVE would complete the highway network and be the catalyst for the development of the federal administration in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya, the Golden Hope corridor and Pulau Carey, including the areas between Morib and Sepang.
He said SKVE Holdings and the Malaysia Highway Authority would liaise to ensure that a portion of the work was allocated to bumiputra contractors as well as Class F contractors.
Under the agreement, SKVE Holdings would have to complete the remaining 43km expressway linking Putrajaya/Cyberjaya and Pulau Indah in Klang in three phases within four years.
The first 7.8km stretch, from the Universiti Tenaga Nasional interchange near Serdang to the LDP interchange, was completed by Gadek Perspec Consortium Sdn Bhd (GPCSB) in 2005. SKVE Holdings, a joint venture between Hunterton Sdn Bhd and Virtual Peaks Resources Sdn Bhd took over GPCSB.
The SKVE would have a four-lane dual carriageway with provision for expansion to six lanes, and would be serviced by six toll plazas.
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