No tolls for proposed Labuan bridge please, says Yong

 

Yong Teck Lee says any private finance initiative proposal should exclude the imposition of road tolls.

KOTA KINABALU: SAPP president Yong Teck Lee is concerned that tolls will be imposed on users of the proposed Labuan bridge when it is completed.

Although he welcomed the federal government’s announcement that the bridge would be constructed, Yong said the government must also ensure that the people were not subjected to road or bridge tolls.

He said the federal government’s invitation for private finance initiatives (PFI) to build the bridge could entail the imposition of road tolls.

Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa had recently told the Dewan Rakyat that the government had agreed to build a bridge connecting Labuan to mainland Sabah through a PFI.

He said his ministry and the works ministry were in the process of finalising the terms of reference for the request for proposal.

Yong said tolls would raise the cost of using the bridge and would be against the objective of reducing the cost of transporting passengers and goods between Labuan and Sabah.

He said the bridge would be provided at no extra cost as “a long overdue debt of the federal government to the people of Labuan”.

He suggested that the federal government make use of a US$5 billion fund made available by China for the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area.

He said between US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion (or RM4 billion to RM6 billion), would be sufficient to build the bridge. - FMT