Toll collection revisited

I’ve said it once before and I’m going to say it again. It’s probably too late for the residents of mainland Penang to make noise regarding the toll collection at the Sungai Nyior plaza of the Butterworth-Kulim highway.

This existing stretch of the highway, already 10 years old, connects Butterworth to Seberang Jaya and further into the interior. It’s considered a lifeline of the mainland that’s used by some 300,000 commuters daily.

If the residents and businesses on the mainland had wanted to protest the toll collection, it should’ve been a concerted effort done long before the Butterworth Outer Ring Road was constructed, not after, when the terms had already been agreed between the Penang state government and the concessionaire.

Personally, I think this agreement stinks. Yes, the BORR may be beneficial to the people of Penang in the long run but if you ask me, the government should not have been so eager to sell off the rights of the people so easily. It has implications which will last several decades of the concession period.

Last Monday, a so-called anti-Sungai Nyior Toll joint committee – comprising the residents’ association from Chai Leng Park, the Southern Kedah Chinese Chamber of Commerce and several other residents’ associations from southern Kedah and the Penang mainland – held a press conference to voice their objections to the toll collection that’s meant to start on 1 Sep 2007.

Unfortunately, their objections were nothing new. There was nothing new to add to what was already said. We know it is similar to daylight robbery, as someone remarked of the toll collection, but I think it will be hard put for the government to defer the toll collection a second time.

Earlier this year after the first round of public protests, the Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) decided to build a RM2 million alternative road to connect Seberang Jaya to Chai Leng Park. Road construction does not normally take so fast to complete but this one was built in record-breaking time. Three months was all it took, reason being the urgency to start collecting toll at the Sungai Nyior Plaza in fulfilment of the contract with the concessionaire.

To be frank, the opening of this Seberang Jaya-Chai Leng Park road should have been done long ago. Everyone could see that the road was needed but nobody could make enough noise to convince the authorities. The protest against the toll collection at the Sungai Nyior Plaza was the catalyst for this road to be constructed, so the MPSP cannot not take any credit for it. The roads was simply waiting to be built, with or without the BORR.

When this road was opened to the public last May, a resident from Seberang Jaya raised a proposal to me. Why not, he said, the Penang government renegotiate with the concessionaire to switch the toll collection from the Sungai Nyior Plaza to this new road?

After all, if toll should be justified, you should be collecting it on a NEW road, not an OLD road. Interesting…yes, why not, indeed? It makes logical sense. I will add my name to the signatures in support of this proposal if this anti-Sungai Nyior Toll joint committee takes it up in their campaign.

UPDATE: It’s interesting to read in today’s New Straits Times (23 Aug 2007) that the general manager of the consessionaire, Suhaimi Jusof, claimed that they have “no choice” but to start collecting toll at the Sungai Nyior Plaza on 1 Sep 2007 because they have spent more than RM5 million to upgrade that stretch of road from the Heng Choon Thian Road junction to the Seberang Jaya roundabout.

It is an interesting comment because it seems to throw the ball back at the feet of the Malaysian Highway Authority AND the Penang state government. But who asked the consessionaire to upgrade an otherwise good road in the first place? Don’t push the blame back to the MHA or the government. You have a choice not to buy this stretch of the Butterworth-Kulim Highway and now, you have a choice not to collect the toll. The ball is actually at your feet, not anyone else.