Highlights are mine...
1. GLC company
2. Promise not kept
3. Pay until your next generation
BTW, speculations are that the GE will be held in June....So, enjoy the EDL toll-free till it last...
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/edl-opens-with-no-toll-for-now
EDL opens with no toll for now
April 01, 2012
JOHOR BAHRU, April 1 — The controversial Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) opened today without any toll collection after being delayed from a scheduled first quarter launch.
Malaysian Highway Authority director-general Datuk Ismail Md Salleh said in a statement yesterday no toll would be charged for now as the government was still finalising the rate for the 8.1km link.
“The toll, however, will be put in place once the mode of payment is finalised,” he said in a statement.
The Malaysian Insider reported in December that the RM1 billion highway built by Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) would force motorists making roundtrips to Singapore via the Johor Causeway to pay about five times more than the present rate of RM2.90.
However, the
Umno-linked company is using an open toll system that charges the full fare at the new Custom, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) checkpoint regardless of where motorists exit or enter the highway — the latest facility for the ambitious Iskandar zone that celebrated its five-year anniversary last December.
The rest of the 8.1km stretch leading to the Pandan interchange of the North-South Highway will be free to local motorists.
With Datuk Seri Najib Razak set to call a general election soon, sources said Putrajaya may be forced to delay or subsidise the toll that could be up to six times the current charge for roundtrips across the one kilometre Causeway spanning both countries.
The prime minister said on March 9 the government would announce
a solution within a fortnight but has so far not delivered.
The Malaysian Insider also learnt that local business leaders were concerned that, with the new CIQ already taking Singaporean tourists away from downturn Johor Baru, the EDL will see them skip the more inland Tebrau area as well.
Taxi drivers also called for an exemption as it would otherwise be unfeasible to ferry passengers across the Causeway.
Over 50,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily, mostly Malaysians living in and around the state capital who commute to the island republic to work.
Johor Baru’s economy is also heavily reliant on Singaporeans who cross the Straits of Johor to enjoy cheaper prices there. Putrajaya set up the Iskandar zone five years ago to turn Johor Baru and its surrounding region into an economic growth area catering to the spillover from Singapore.
Cars and lorries exiting Singapore and heading into Johor now pay RM2.90 and RM5.50 respectively to use the bridge while motorcycles, which make up more than half of traffic across the Causeway, are exempt from the toll.
Singapore’s Straits Times reported in 2008 that rates will be
raised every three years of the 30-year concession and will peak at RM14.60 for passenger vehicles and RM29.20 for lorries.