‘Extra 50 lanes at Causeway won’t help congestion’

JOHOR BARU: Johoreans are sceptical that the 50 additional motorcycle lanes at the Causeway and the Second Link announced under Budget 2020 will make much of an impact on the congestion.

Technician K. Sushtendran, 40, said while he welcomed the government’s announcement, he believed that the effect would not be significant.

“Hundreds of motorcyclists cross both the Causeway and Second Link every day. I do not think that extra 50 lanes will make any difference.

“It may help to reduce a bit of the congestion but the problem will still remain, ” he said.

Restaurant manager Edmund Tan, 37, said the extra lanes would not mean anything if there were not enough people to man the counters.

“The more urgent thing to look into is ensuring that there are enough officers to man the counters, ” he said.

Private security officer K. Visvam, 38, said the main cause of the congestion at the Causeway and Second Link is the heavy presence of other vehicles such as cars, lorries and even buses, ” he said.

Tabling the Budget 2020 on Friday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had said that the government would invest RM85mil towards enhancing vehicle and traffic flow through the Customs, Immigration and Quaran-tine Complex.

He said an additional 50 counters would be opened for motorcyclists and the Immigration and PLUS counters streamlined.

At present, there are 100 motorcycle lanes at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar CIQ here and another 50 lanes at the Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar at the Second Link.- Star