[Roorseprate]

Friday March 2, 2012

Thousands celebrate as Cheras-Kajang highway charges are halved

By WANI MUTHIAH
wani@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Hundreds of thousands of motorists plying the Cheras-Kajang Highway have cause to celebrate with the announcement that their daily toll charges will be cut by half.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the RM1 charge for the 9th Mile toll plaza towards Kuala Lumpur and the 90 sen charge at the 11th Mile plaza towards Kajang along the Grand Saga Highway had been abolished. His announcement was met with thunderous applause by thousands gathered at the ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed SRJK Cina Bandar Sungai Long yesterday. The abolition took effect from midnight.

“The Government has succeeded in reducing the burden of road users by 50%, with the cutting of the usual RM3.80 toll charges to RM1.90 for both ways,” Najib said, adding that the efforts in reducing toll charges had long been championed by Umno, MCA and other Barisan Nasional members.



Cheaper drive: Residents celebrating in front of the Batu 9 toll plaza at midnight this morning following the reduction of toll charges at the Cheras-Kajang Highway.

Barisan, added Najib, had been championing the cause since 2009, which was brought up again last year by Barisan's Hulu Langat parliamentary constituency coordinator Datuk Johan Abdul Aziz during a breaking of fast event in Sungai Long.

“In his speech, he (Johan) talked about the 9th mile and 11th mile toll,” said Najib, adding that meetings were subsequently held with both the Works Ministry and its minister to look into ways to reduce the burden of highway users. Over the past decade, two tolls in Cheras have been abolished, the first of which was the Jalan Cheras toll plaza.

Motorists paid 50 sen each time they used it on their way to Cheras from Kuala Lumpur and vice versa before the toll plaza was closed in September 2003. Last May, drivers were also pleasantly surprised when they no longer had to pay to pass through the East-West Link Expressway, which connects Cheras to Petaling Jaya.

The collection was abolished seven years before the concession period for the expressway was due to end on May 31, 2018. Najib also said the 2.4ha piece of land for the SRJK (C) had initially been set aside for a national school but this was handed over to the Chinese school as it was difficult to find another piece of land in the area.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin, who is also the Education Minister, then decided to set aside this land for the Chinese school, he said. Chiding those quarters who only “made noise” but did not grant the school the land it needed, Najib described their antics as merely “sandiwara” (drama).

“There's no need to play politics as education should not be made a political tool to be toyed with,” said Najib, who also handed over a RM4.5mil cheque to the school board for the construction of the building.