Dr M all for 'congestion charge' on cars entering KL

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has thrown his weight behind the idea of imposing a ‘congestion charge’ on cars entering Kuala Lumpur.

 

“We see far too many cars in KL. At some stage we think we have to charge them for coming into KL, especially those with only one driver, no passengers. Those people should pay something,” he told a press conference today.

 

A similar system in London, he said, had been very effective in alleviating traffic jams - a major complaint among road users in KL as well.

 

The government last mooted the idea in 2007, but abandoned it after widespread outcry and said it would revisit the idea once the public transport infrastructure improved.

Mahathir also lamented at the press conference that flash floods in the city have resulted in unsightly above-ground multi-storey car parks being built to avoid damages such as that suffered by cars trapped in underground car parks during floods.

Along with improved drainage, he called for these car parks to be decorated with items such as decorative fences and Islamic motifs.

“These are very ugly now, just four or five storeys, without any designs. Please beautify them a bit,” he said.

Made patron of Institute of Planners

Mahathir was speaking to reporters after being named as a patron of the Malaysian Institute of Planners at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur today, in recognition of his role in Malaysia’s development, in particular envisioning Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and the KL International Airport (KLIA).

In his speech after receiving the accolades, he explained why KLIA was allocated 25,000 acres of land, compared with Putrajaya’s 10,000 acres, as an example of the forward-thinking that town planners needed.

He said this came from lessons learnt from the transfer of the operations of Sungai Besi Airport to Subang Airport, with just enough land for one runway and a projection of handling 400,000 passengers a year.

“However, what we found when we moved from Subang to KLIA was that Subang Airport was andling 14 million passengers (a year). This shows how wrong our projections were,” he said.

Therefore, he said, KLIA as part of its 100-year plan has reserved a vast amount of space to expand from its current two runways to five runways, which will be able to handle 125 million passengers a year.

This was necessary as space for runways would otherwise become increasingly scarce.

“I hope the future generation will thank our planners because it is they who advised me to earmark (the land),” Mahathir said.

Another example of brilliant foresight, he said, was Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd chief executive Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid’s suggestion that the reserve land be used as oil palm plantation to earn some side income.

The price of the palm oil, he added, has tripled from RM1,000 a metric tonne to RM3,000 a metric tonne since then.

“That is planning. We plan by taking account of the future needs. Malaysian planners are confident in making good plans that take account of future growth and development.

“We don’t plan just for today, for the issues of the day, or even a year, but for many years to come. If we do so, then the problem of congestion (at airports) can be reduced,” Mahathir added.

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