6 more toll plazas along highways in Klang Valley and Penang will go cashless starting 1st June (Wednesday).
The highways involved are the Sungai Besi Highway (E9 Besraya), Butterworth Outer Ring Road (E17 LLB), Kajang SILK Highway (E18), South Klang Valley Expressway (E26 SKVE), Second Penang Bridge (E28), and New North Klang Straits Bypass (E30 Grand Sepadu).
To encourage toll users to convert to the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system, 3 types of incentives will be offered in the aforementioned toll gates.
Firstly, a total of 108,500 Touch N’ Go cards will be given out for free with a minimum credit purchase of RM5. Smart Tag users will also benefit, as Smart Tags will be sold at a promotion price of RM104.95 (inclusive of 6% GST) with a minimum credit purchase of RM20.
Touch N’ Go cards usually retail at RM10.60 while Smart Tags cost RM120.
All commuters who drive a Class 1 vehicle (vehicles with 2 axles and 3 or 4 wheels excluding taxis) will also enjoy a 10% rebate off these toll plazas between 1st June until 31st July.
Association of Highway Concessionaires Malaysia (PSKLM) vice-president Sazally Saidi announced this yesterday (23rd May) at the Besraya office near the Loke Yew toll plaza.
He also added:
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We want to implement full ETC system to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the toll plazas so that motorists will have shorter waiting time. This will allow for a reduced concentration of vehicles at toll plazas and smoother flowing traffic.
Sazally further explained that at toll plazas, cash transactions take up 15 seconds, Touch N’ Go lanes 6 seconds, while Smart Tag lanes are the fastest with only 3 seconds. This might not seem like a lot, but in an hour’s time, cash transaction lanes can process only 400 vehicles, compared to the 550 vehicles for Touch N’ Go lanes and 1,000 vehicles for Smart Tag lanes.
In addition, he also referred to a case study conducted on the Damansara toll plaza (Sprint Highway), where they found out that the longest queues recorded before the implementation of the ETC system was 300m, while after the implementation, motorists only had to queue for a maximum of 10m.
Sazally also stated that the government hopes to implement the ETC system to all toll plazas on 31 highways nationwide by 2018.
Not sure if the highways you use have switched to the ETC system? Click here, here, and here to check.
More and more toll plazas in Malaysia are starting to implement the ETC system, so even if you don’t use the aforementioned highways, it won’t harm to load up your Touch N’ Go card!
Source: The Star.
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