KUALA LUMPUR: There is still traffic congestion along the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway near the Gombak toll plaza heading towards Kuala Lumpur this morning.
The morning traffic crawl, however, was not as bad as yesterday or the previous days.
According to the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) there was a 600-metre long traffic crawl before the exit of the Gombak toll plaza heading towards Kuala Lumpur at 10.10am today.
"There is also traffic congestion from MRR2 (Middle Ring Road 2) before entering Gombak toll plaza towards Kuantan," said the MHA in a Facebook posting.
In several separate postings last night, the MHA had said there were congestions stretching up to 4km near the Gombak toll plaza heading towards Kuala Lumpur.
The situation left members of the public fuming as well as wondering how such large number of motorists managed to get permits to travel crossing the state and district borders.
Police, however, told Harian Metro that majority of travellers who had caused the traffic jam near the Gombak toll plaza had valid travel permits.
Gombak district police chief Assistant Commissioner Arifai Tarawe made the conclusion based on his checks conducted from 5pm on Sunday until 1am yesterday at the roadblock mounted near the Gombak toll plaza.
"Checks showed most of the people inspected (at the roadblocks) had travel permits to travel interstate with the majority involving matters returning to universities and other learning centres.
"Based on the stringent checks conducted, the police issued 22 compounds against people who did not have the travel permit to travel interstate.
"And each of them were issued RM5,000 in compounds," he said.
Arifai reportedly said the situation was not that serious compared to the festive period in previous years before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.