The Batu Tiga Toll is Going Down!
Tolls are pretty much the bane of every Malaysian motorist. It’s not just the rising toll fee one has to deal with while making the daily commute back and forth to work, but also epic traffic jams caused by closed lanes, faulty barriers, drivers entering wrong lanes, and so on. Things even reached a point once in the ’90s where residents near an old Cheras toll threw rocks at it to protest a price hike.
So when our beloved Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the frequently-congested Batu Tiga toll (separating Shah Alam and Subang Jaya on the Federal Highway) and Sungai Rasau toll would cease collection beginning 1 Jan 2018, netizens were elated.
Tabled during this evening’s Budget 2018 proposal at Parliament, Najib announced plans for closing the two tolls on the Federal Highway along with another two other tolls in Kedah (Bukit Kayu Hitam) and Johor (EDL) respectively.
Despite the obvious good news, some are still skeptical if this move would leave to more tolls being closed down. According to the MalayMail Online, “In its alternative budget unveiled two days ago, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Opposition pact promised that all tolls in Malaysia would be abolished should they win federal power in the next elections. PH said that it would do so by buying over all the toll concessionaires in the country.”
The Batu Tiga tolls collects RM1.10 for cars while the Sungai Rasau toll charges RM1.
Pretty much no one remembers it as it really was anymore. Read about Dr M’s post-thoughts on Ops Lalang here.