Media Press Release

Date: Tuesday, 03 March 2015
Category: Announcement

THE project to build a safe expressway from KL to Kuala Terengganu has been a very challenging one. And the challenge
continues...

It's not about the mountainous terrain of the Genting and Karak stretches — these wereconquered long ago. The challenges are within the corridors of power in state governments when officials lobby to award contracts and concessions to-friendly parties. And if that's not possible, then they try to stall the process. It's a game of the dog in the manger. If he can't get it, then no one else gets it. The victims of course are the users and the tax payers.

There are two Malay proverbs that must be used together to describe the situation. The first is: gajah berperang, semut di pijak and the second: Pagar makan padi. describe the situation. The first is: gajah berperang, semut di pijak and the second: Pagar makan padi. The English translation is respectively: When elephants battle, the ants get trodden; and the second, the gate-keeper who turns rapist.

This was the situation that we and thousands of Malaysian motorists experienced a week ago during the tail end of the Chinese New Year Holidays. From KL to Dungun took seven hours on Thursday 19 Febuary, starting at 9.30am at the BHP station queue to the Gombak Toll plaza. From Dungun to Kuala Terengganu on Sunday, February 22nd took nine hours. Both these journeys were two stop strategies — lunch breaks at Maran's Kedai makan Kak Mas, and toilet breaks at Perasing, almost the grandest rest stop of all the toll highways north and south included. The LPTI and LPT2 combined is a wonderful highway. BUT. And this is a big BUT.

LPTI is almost there, and LPT2 is a sad tale of political rape of the people. LPTI is from KL to Kuantan and is a tolled highway operated by Anih Bhd for a few years already. Everything is professionally run by this company which has good links with the former Terengganu state government. In fact, we can say that Anih gives good competition to PLUS, Malaysia's biggest toll-highway conessionaire, because of its exemplary handling of the queues of cars/motorists at toll plazas. It had traffic marshalls to help car drivers to form orderly queues. This highlights PLUS shortcoming in managing toll plaza congestion. It's a mad rush that ensues because directionless car drivers join queues far away, only to realise that they are not in the correct lane nearer the toll booth. took nine hours. Having said that, Anih Bhd needs to install more temporary payment booths to handle the surge of festival season motorists.



Secondly, LPT1 had only a few Variable Message Boards to provide information to motorists but their officials used this intelligently to flash the handphone numbers and the land line numbers for motorists to call for information. We called the numbers to ask for the traffic information and our four calls in total were answered efficiently and without too long a wait. The first call to the handphone 012 3557390 was cut off after many rings but was answered within 10 rings when we tried again in a few minutes.



The congestion of the LPT1 was unprecedented in my many years of using it. We saw Rest Stop areas with cars backed up to main highway. This must be the biggest surge of motorists on the LPT1 and we reckon that it was caused by the motorists who were proceeding onwards to Terengganu and Kelantan on LPT2. Now come the sad part about LPT2. It's a brilliant highway and we enjoyed a smooth drive because all the toll booths were non operational — free of charge. The crown of Rest Stop Area might go to the Perasing Rest Stop Area. It's as beautiful as a resort and the sanitary facilities are unparalleled. But, like the toll plazas, the RSA is not officially opened and the many motorists and their passengers, to their credit, tried to keep it as clean as they could by disposing of their own food waste.





There was one entrepreneur who had opened a small food stall selling home-cooked curries. I didn't see any cleaners but the toilet and shower stalls were clean. However, the Ajil rest-stop west bound was a disappointment because there wasn't enough water for the rest rooms.

The security guard politely informed us that the the pump was undersized and there wasn't enough water for the main men's facilities, explaining to us why even able-bodied gents had to queue up to use the OKU (handicapped) toilet. The people of Terengganu and Kelantan have been waiting patiently for the opening of LPT2, the 185 km stretch of modern highway from Kuala Lumpur to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Finally, when the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) and the Mentri Besar of Terengganu declared the highway provisionally open two months ago, there was a swell of anticipation among east coasters working in KL and the Klang Valley. Finally, they would be able to drive safely and with modern rest stop facilities all the way from KL to Kuala Terengganu. The test of the highway was during this Chinese New Year holidays from Thursday to Sunday. The full load test was on Sutiday, February 22nd.

Why? Those celebrating Chinese New Year would have started heading home from Monday Feb 16 to be on time for their family re-union dinner on Wednesday, February 18. The rest of the east coasters who just wanted to enjoy the long week-end departed on Thursday Feb 19, the day that the public holidays started.



But, while some celebrants and holiday makers would start heading back for KL on Saturday, most would depart on Sunday. And this was anticipated by the MHA when it issued its Travel Time Advisory (TTA) for Saturday and Sunday. I was one of those who was anticipating the opportunity to try the highway all the way to KT. For me, this would be a culmination of a dream: to drive from KL to KT as smoothly and safely as from KL to Muar or KL to Penang on the PLUS highway.

In fact, the past year as new stretches of the LPT2 were declared open, we would test drive them. When the link to Dungun was opened last year, we went there to vist our son at the UiTM. Then, signage got me and my wife lost. But it was night-time and it was partly our fault too. On Thursday Feb 19, we joined the thousands of motorists on our drive to the East Coast.

The TTA had advised those leaving KL to Terengganu on Thursday to start before 10am. When we got to Gombak, the queue to the toll plaza started at the BHP station about a kilometre before the toll. That day, it took us five hours to reach the Jabor U-turn to Cheneh and Kuala Terengganu. It has been about eight years ago that the LPT2 project was started. Even the award of the 185km contract was delayed because of the lobbying. Finally, the contract was subdivided into 16 packages to satisfy some of the cronies.

MTD, the Anih Bhd subsidiary of course did its 40 per cent share of the package with a delay of one year, the fastest of all the contractors. Many of the other packages were delayed by up to four years because the crony contractors obviously were better in lobbying for contract than in performing them. This lobbying for the concession to operate the LPT2 is what's holding up the Malaysian Highway Authority's handover. It had been agreed that Anih would have the first right of refusal to collect the tolls and operate LPT2.

That was under the former MB's time where he was known to observe professional protocol and award contracts based on merit rather than pure politics. That's obviously not the case now, and for the time being, I'd suggest that motorists plan to go out of the highway for food and fuel until LPT2 is handed over to a competent operator.

And MHA should use the opportunity to stop political lobbying by making transparent Anih Bhd's concession terms and its investments so that the other lobbyists can compensate Anih and improve the offer to MHA. It's good to remember that motorists and tax payers are funding infrastructure and it should benefit them at a fair price. The government shouldn't allow price gouging 'by powerful lobbyists if it wants to practice what it preaches.