Highway concessionaires to offer toll discounts for CNY

Traffic situation at Duta plaza toll to Damansara, picture taken around 1pm on Tuesday,11, 2018. FAIHAN GHANI/The Star.

KUALA LUMPUR: Highway concessionaires will offer toll discounts of between 10% and 30% to car users on Chinese Lunar New Year day, says Works Minister Baru Bian.

"This coming Chinese New Year, a total of 25 highway operators will offer special incentive to motorists in the form of discounts.

"The discounts will be between 10% and 30% for Class 1 vehicles (cars) on Feb 5," he said when launching the Highway Safety Advocacy Campaign at the Gombak Toll Plaza in conjunction with the coming Chinese Lunar New Year celebration on Tuesday (Jan 29).

He said that PLUS Malaysia Berhad will offer 10% discount for Class 1 vehicles (cars) using the Electronic Toll Charge (ETC) for six of its highways.

He added that ANIH Berhad, which operates the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway and East Coast Highway (Phase 1), is also offering 10% discount for Class 1 vehicles (cars).

The discounts will be effective at midnight on Feb 5 to 11.59pm the same day.

Earlier in his speech, Baru said that out of the 226 road fatalities recorded during the two week festive period last year, 22 fatalities occurred on the highways.

He said this was a reduction compared to 28 fatalities on the highway out of the 257 fatal road accidents for the same period in 2017.

He also expressed concern that motorcyclists continue to record the highest fatality rate.

"Based on Road Safety Department statistics, the majority of those killed in accidents are between 16 and 25 years old," he added.

He noted that the ministry had allocated RM1.3mil last year to improve road conditions at 10 accident prone areas along the highways.

He said improvements to these "blackspot" areas had reduced road accidents by 54%.