HIGHWAY concessionaires Eastern Dispersal Link expressway (EDL) and Senai-Desaru Expressway (SDE) are facing the risk of bankruptcy.
Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said there were no plans, at the moment, for the government to bail out the companies.
“We have to look at ways to best resolve this issue and assist the companies. We have yet to make any decision on the matter,” he said.
He said some highways were affected following the government’s decision to introduce toll charges and vehicle entry permits.
“When we first introduced the toll at Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex, certain parts of the EDL were free because the Johor government wanted them free for Johoreans. Only vehicles going from and to Singapore were charged.”
He said Singapore’s subsequent move to revise toll rates for vehicles entering Malaysia had contributed to the drop in the number of vehicles using EDL.
Fadillah said SDE also recorded fewer vehicles on the road.
“A study needs to be carried out with due diligence to look into their problems and if it (the bank-ruptcy issue) is true, we need to find out if we should take over the highways or get another company to manage them in order to mitigate the losses.”
Fadillah said this after the ground-breaking ceremony of an overhead bridge project for the motorcycle lane in the Federal Highway.
“The income for the highway is based on a projection of traffic volume. If toll collection is insufficient, it will not be able to maintain the highway,” he said, adding that both companies were still maintaining the highways despite incurring losses.