A protest against toll payment at the new Damansara toll plaza in Selangor this afternoon was organised by the shadow Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) and DAP.

The shadow council, comprising members of Barisan Alternatif and the public, was formed after the 1999 general elections as a watchdog on MPPJ, with the long-term objective of restoring local council elections.

About 10 protestors unfurled banners and placards bearing the words 'Stop the toll', 'Ayoyo Samy', 'Say no to toll,' and got supporting honks from passing motorists for about 30 minutes before a police officer approached shadow MPPJ chairperson Ronnie Liu and stopped him from using a loudhailer.

"This is an illegal assembly, you are not allowed to use the loudhailer, or I'll have to take action," said the police officer who steadfastly insisted that the group disperse despite Liu's request to stay for five minutes.

Some 20 Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel stood by at a nearby petrol station while more than 10 policemen were seen at the scene.

Liu, who is also DAP publicity-secretary, said the authorities must first resolve the traffic congestion before they allow the concessionaire to start collecting toll on July 30.

It has been reported in Parliament that the toll could be as high as RM4 (to and fro) for the Kerinchi link and RM1.20 for the Damansara link, which translates to a hefty expense of RM1,460 and RM432 respectively per year, he said.

"Now that Works Minister Samy Vellu has confirmed that Sprint (Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat) has been given 33 years to collect toll, road users have to pay RM14,256 and RM48,180 for the Damansara and Kerinchi links respectively, for 33 years," Liu said.

Liu added that with more than 180,000 vehicles on Jalan Damansara every day, there is no reason for Sprint to impose such an expensive toll on motorists.

He hoped the government will review the current toll rate to relieve the people's burden, suggesting that it be reduced to 30 sen to 50 sen.

The 9km Damansara link was upgraded and widened from the existing Jalan Damansara-Semantan.

The 11.5km Kerinchi link connects the Federal Highway at Angkasapuri to Jalan Damansara and the New Klang Valley Expressway.

Exit road

Liu also criticised MPPJ for failing in its intention to build a special flyover as an exit road for the tenants in the neighbouring Phileo Damansara office complex to ease traffic congestion, as announced earlier.

"We are very disappointed with the MPPJ for not ensuring that the developers of various projects in the area construct flyovers and interchanges according to MPPJ's approved development orders before being granted the CFs to these projects," he said.

The traffic conditions along Jalan Damansara would not be so bad if the various developers had complied with the development orders issued by MPPJ, Liu added.

Liu said some private engineers had reviewed Sprint's plan to widen Jalan Damansara and found the design of the road would not ease the traffic congestion that is already prevalent there.

"However, Sprint did not accept our opinion," Liu said, adding that the routes from the different toll booths are confusing.

Already, there are several bottlenecks on the road and the collection of toll would only create a long queue right from the toll plaza to Jalan Semantan in Damansara Heights, he said.