Last year we reported that the government is testing the effectiveness of using an ANPR (Automatic Registration Number Recognition) toll payment system in an effort to reduce the issue of traffic congestion at toll locations around the Klang Valley.
A report from media portal Free Malaysia Today today said that previously, the YTL company was one of the companies that had bid to develop the physical infrastructure and the ANPR payment system, but was not agreed by the 32 highway concession companies.
The same report now says that another company has started bidding for the same project, but with a slight difference. These highway concession companies will build the physical infrastructure for the installation of the ANPR system, but Berjaya Group, the second company that reportedly bid for the project will be responsible for developing and overseeing the ANPR payment system that will be used to collect tolls from road users.
In the meantime, Berjaya will also be given the responsibility to ensure that leakage of toll collection does not occur, and any deficiency in terms of toll payment will be borne by them. In terms of the location where these ANPR tolls will be introduced first, the FMT report also says that they will be introduced first at the main tolls in the Klang Valley, Johor and Penang which show higher traffic congestion.
However, the main reason why these concession companies do not want to continue this project with YTL is because under the existing contract, YTL is estimated to collect as much as RM650 to RM850 million every year for 20 years from the companies under the Malaysian Highway Authority.
With Berjaya's bid, it is estimated that the collection can be reduced by 30 percent and with plans to develop their own bar infrastructure, Berjaya's focus will be more on developing a sustainable payment system.