BUTTERWORTH, Sept 10 – PLUS Malaysia Bhd (PLUS) will fully implement Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) on all its highways from 2017. PLUS chief operating officer, Mohd Fuad Khusairi said currently a total of 14 of the 92 toll plazas has implemented the ETC system while the rest still use a closed toll system.
“PLUS expects it to be implemented in the next two years, he was one of our efforts to reduce congestion at toll plazas as electronic citations can save more time. PLUS expected traffic congestion there to be reduced from 30 to 50 per cent of the toll plaza there which on going fully ETC,” he told the reporters after checking on the full ETC implementation at PLUS’ Penang Bridge toll plaza here on Wednesday.
“The 82,000 vehicles used the bridge daily and that before Wednesday, the ETC method of payment at the toll plaza had reached 90 per cent of the entails payment via PLUSMiles and Touch’n Go cards, the SmartTAG device and enabled MyKad, he said. Mohd Fuad said PLUS toll plazas were able to handle 1,200 SmartTAG transactions in an hour while for PLUSMiles and Touch ‘n’ Go cards it was 550 but only 400 under the cash payment method.
Other toll plazas which also implemented the ETC system on Wednesday were the ones at Jitra (North-South Highway (PLUS)); Bukit Kayu Hitam (PLUS); Lunas (Butterworth-Kulim Expressway(BKE)) and Kubang Semang (BKE). Also the Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (AKLEH) toll plaza; the Ayer Panas toll plaza on the Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway (DUKE); the Sentul Pasar DUKE toll plaza; the Batu DUKE toll plaza; and the SMART Highway toll plaza.
