Lowered rates: A toll highway signboard with the old toll charges blacked out at the Kemuning toll plaza on Kesas Highway.

PETALING JAYA: Toll charges on the Shah Alam (Kesas) Highway has been reduced by between 10 sen and 40 sen beginning today.

For Class One vehicles (with two axles and three or four wheels, excluding taxis), the new charge is RM2, down by 20 sen from RM2.20.

For Class Two vehicles (with two axles and six wheels, excluding buses), the toll charge is now RM3 compared with RM3.30 previously.

The new charge for Class Three vehicles (with three or more axles) is RM4, reduced by 40 sen from RM4.40.

For Class Four vehicles (taxis), the charge is now RM1, down by 10 sen from RM1.10 and for Class Five vehicles (buses), it is now RM1.50 compared with RM1.70 previously.

Works Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said the reduced toll charges would benefit more than 290,000 motorists who used the highway daily.

“The charges will remain until Dec 31, 2015, and would have a positive impact on people living in Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Klang and the surrounding areas,” he said after checking on the progress of the construction of an elevated U-turn at Km37.5 of the highway yesterday.

Toll is charged at three points along the 34.5km highway, which stretches from the Sri Petaling interchange in Kuala Lumpur to the Pandamaran interchange in Klang.

These are at the Awan Besar East (Kuala Lumpur-bound), Awan Besar West (Subang Jaya/Klang-bound), Sunway and Kemuning toll plazas.

Shaziman said the reduction was part of the restructuring of the toll rates on the highway which was managed by Kesas Sdn Bhd.

He said since Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took over as Prime Minister, toll charges on several highways had been restructured.

“This includes the North-South Expressway in 2010 and the Cheras-Kajang Expressway, also known as the Grand Saga Expressway last year, while on the Metramac East-West Link Highway, the toll was removed in 2011.

“The Government will continue to negotiate and convince highway concessionaires to restructure their toll charges but only after a survey has been done to determine the increase in traffic on any highway,” he said.

Shaziman said under an agreement with the concessionaire, the toll charges on the Kesas Highway was to have been raised to RM3 for Class One vehicles on Jan 1 last year.

“That would place a financial burden on the people and the Prime Minister decided to postpone the hike and pay the concessionaire a compensation of 80 sen per vehicle or RM86mil for 2012,” he said.

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