Transport Ministry looking for holistic way to ease traffic jams

JOHOR BARU: Disposing of vehicles that are more than 10 years old is a complex matter that must be dealt with in a holistic way, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

"I don't think everyone would be able to change their vehicle every 10 years. Even my late father was driving a 20-year-old vehicle," said Dr Wee.

"Most of our parents in the village are still using Perodua Kancil and Proton Iswara, and this is something that we have inherited from our family."

Dr Wee said that there is more than one approach that can be taken to tackle congestion on the road.

“What is the best policy to introduce and what intervention to take - all of this must be dealt with in a holistic way,” said the Transport Minister.

Dr Wee said that the city centre such as Putrajaya must first have a comprehensive line of public transportation connectivity, which is also the main focus of the Transport Ministry.

He said this when met by reporters after the flag-off ceremony of the Tebrau shuttle at JB Sentral, here today.

Dr Wee said this when asked to comment on a suggestion made by a group of researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) who suggested disposing of vehicles that were over 10 years old to improve traffic flow in urban areas.

“Take for example our neighbouring country, Singapore. The people there have to pay RM100,000 for a certificate of entitlement for a vehicle, and they have to limit the number of vehicles due to the size of the land, but we do not have this (restriction) in our country.

“In Malaysia, we have 34 million registered vehicles, but only two-thirds or 22 million vehicles are active and paying for the road tax.

“Our investigations revealed that some of these registered vehicles are actually old vehicles that are still kept by the owners for sentimental value.”

Dr Wee went on to say that the ministry is working hard to provide the best public transportation service possible in the hope of encouraging people to use it more and reduce their reliance on private vehicles.

“We just introduced the first phase of the MRT Putrajaya Line that has 12 stations from Kwasa Damansara to Kampung Batu, spanning 17.5km.

“The second phase of the MRT Putrajaya will be completed by January next year, and trains will pass through the entire route from Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya, marking the end of the line of a total of 57.7km, with a total of 36 stations.

“We have not gone through MRT 3, which will be a ring route where physical development is expected to start at the earliest in the next six to eight years,” he said.