Highway concession agreements revealed
The highway concession agreements between the government and the nation’s highway operators were made available to the press for a brief period today prior to them being made public on Jan 5 following their declassification from the Official Secrets Act 1972.
The highway concession agreements between the government and the nation’s highway operators were made available to the press for a brief period today prior to them being made public on Jan 5 following their declassification from the Official Secrets Act 1972.
A total of sixteen highway concession agreements were made available to the press. The remaining six agreements were not shown. They agreements disclosed were for the following highways:
Guthrie Corridor, KL-Karak, Kesas, Metramac, Grand Saga, North Klang Sdn Bhd, Smart, LDP, Prolintas Aklen, New Pantai Expressway, Sprint, Besraya, Penang Bridge, Silk, Butterworth Outer Ring Highway and Shapadu.
Reporters were initially allowed to snap photographs only and told they were only allowed to view the documents for a total of 30 minutes.
Photocopying of the documents would only be allowed after they are gazetted by parliament under the Fee Act. Parliament’s next session is next month.
Malaysiakini managed to get some brief details on the concession agreements during the 30 minutes allocated. Here are some of the points:
Calculations for the concessionaires’ agreements are based on this formula:
CA = E [(AT x TV)] - TA
with
CA = Amount of compensation payable in the year
E = Summary of all classes of vehicles
AT = Agreed Toll
TV = Traffic Volume
TA = Toll Amount
Smart Tunnel concession 40 years
For the Kesas highway, the concession period was initially for a period of 28 years and nine months but this was extended by a year.
The government paid the company a total of RM150,000,000 in compensation in three installments on Dec 31, 2002, Dec 31, 2003 and Dec 31, 2004. The concession period now ends in 2023.
For the LDP highway, there are three toll gates on this highway - at Penchala, PJ Selatan and Puchong Barat. The concession period is from 1998 to 2028.
The concession for the Silk highway, meanwhile, signed on Oct 8, 1997 is effective for a period of 36 years from 2001 to 2036 while the concession period for the Smart Tunnel is for 40 years. The total cost of construction for the Smart Tunnel was RM1,933,000,000.
Members of the public who are interested in viewing the concession agreements would be able to do so at the Reading Room, Library, Sixth Floor, Ministry of Works, Jalan Sultan Salahudin, Kuala Lumpur from Monday, Jan 5 onwards.
They would be required to fill in a form and they would only be able to view the documents for a maximum period of two hours. An individual can only view one document at a time. The library will only allow a maximum of five people in to view the documents at any one time within office hours.
