[ UPDATE 21/12/2023 15:55 ] Christmas holiday toll waiver announced for highways in Malaysia on 23rd and 26th December 2023.
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The long Christmas weekend is just a few days away and most Malaysians are expected to hit the roads to travel interstate. If you’re wondering if the government will announce another round of highway toll waivers, Deputy Works Minister Ahmad Maslan wants you to stay tuned this coming Friday, 22nd December.
During his visit to the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM), he hinted an announcement would be made soon on a potential toll exemption in conjunction with the Christmas celebration. Bernama quoted him saying, “I was told there might be an announcement on Friday. Let’s wait”.
Government allocates RM21 million per day for toll-free highway initiative
The Deputy Minister said the government on average allocates RM21 million per day to highway concessionaires to waive highway tolls. In 2023, the government has paid out RM80.07 million for Hari Raya Aidilfitiri (4 days), RM42.31 million for Deepavali (2 days) and RM41.21 million for the Chinese New Year (2 days) toll-free initiatives.
Additional 100 EV charging points for tolled highways by 2025
As more EVs are hitting Malaysian roads, Ahmad Maslan said the government is targeting to have an additional 100 EV charging points along tolled highways, especially for the North-South Expressway (PLUS) by 2025. There are currently about 60 EV charging points on PLUS highway and East Coast Expressway (LPT) which are placed at selected R&R and petrol stations.
Ahmad Maslan said, “The need for increased EV charging points is one of the new challenges in the future highway landscape, in addition to creating new concepts for R&Rs, smart highways and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting.”
Gentari has recently announced that it will be upgrading existing AC charge point at Petronas stations at PLUS R&Rs to faster DC chargers. Among the latest DC fast charging deployments include Petronas Ulu Bernam Southbound R&R, Behrang Northbound Lay-by and Petronas Solaris Seri Kembangan Southbound Lay-by.
Earlier this year, ChargEV and PLUS announced that they are building an EV charging hub at R&R Seremban Southbound which will feature 8 charging bays with up to 350kW DC fast charging. TNB Electron has also announced plans to deploy EV chargers at over 60 locations until 2025. It aims to deploy DC chargers in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Kedah, Perak, Pulau Pinang and Johor.
[ SOURCE ]
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