IF there is one point of contention I continue to have with the North South Highway Maintenance (PLUS) Malaysia Bhd it is this – their toll concessions somehow seem to stretch beyond their time.

The case in point would be the Batu Tiga Toll Plaza, which is about 5 kilometres right off from a toll plaza exiting Klang, passing Shah Alam and connecting to the Federal Highway. For some odd reason or another, this government had allowed PLUS to continue managing it with a cop-out excuse after the concession period was supposed to lapse.

Their excuse?

Apparently, since PLUS could not raise the toll rates, therefore the people of Shah Alam, Klang, Batu Tiga and further down would have to fork out RM1.10 for the next 20 odd years until 2038. It was supposed to become free by 2018.

I’m not against it because it’s a burden, but I am against it because it is nonsensical to charge people from Klang an additional RM1.10 for that short length of road. Similar to how I find it nonsensical to charge RM2.50 for the Penchala Link in Damansara to get into Mont Kiara.

There is an inflated cost here that just doesn’t make sense, and perhaps we should look at the secretive toll concession deals and figure out where the last Works Minister who signed off on all these got it wrong.

This is not the first time a businessman has come out wanting to buy out the toll gates with the promise of undoing the constant rise of toll rates. Tan Sri Halim Saad has made two bids in the past to buy out PLUS – initially at RM50 billion before raising it to RM68 billion in 2014.

Thus, why the interest now when Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed makes a similar offer for a lower price tag?

We shouldn’t even be considering selling the tolls, but consider meeting the concession toll prices and ending the agreements on time.

Whatever the outcome, someone has to pay the tolls. The government forking out the funds would mean taking out cash meant for development in order to undo a gigantic cluster of hereditary issues which would benefit the automotive industry, at the expense of public transport.

Or, the government could take that money and build more public transport links to get people out of cars and into buses and trains, which would lessen dependence on roads and highways, thus eating away at the toll concessionaires.

With the upcoming LRT Line 3 which will link Bandar Utama all the way to Klang by 2020, and the MRT Line 2 from Serdang to Putrajaya by second quarter of 2022, highways will be bypassed to allow better commuting times which will give daily commuters an alternative to using the highways.

We don’t need a plan to offload the tolls, we need a plan to end them and make the roads flow freely.

We need a better plan to get people off the roads into public transport and end the need for a car not just here in Greater Kuala Lumpur but also in every city centre including Kuching and Kota Kinabalu – which have been left too long to fend for their own. In fact, those two cities should be linked by rail as soon as possible.

The same should apply for the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia as well.

The long-term goal for Malaysians should be to end the tolls as soon as possible, as affordably as possible. If that means raising the rates now to end it sooner, the government and the people should do it at least here in the Greater Klang Valley where they have an alternative to take the trains and stick it to the concessionaire.

Hopefully by 2022 onwards, these companies will be stuck with the bill and no longer be able to operate in what is basically a rent-seeking operation that partially goes into our retirement fund. And by that time, hopefully the EPF would have found something better to invest in. – September 29, 2017.

* Hafidz loves to ruffle feathers and believes in the EA Games tag line of challenging everything. Most times, he represents the Devil’s Advocate on multiple issues.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.