Sunday January 29, 2006
Jams and chaos mar the trip home
BY SA’ODAH ELIAS and ANDREW SAGAYAM
PETALING JAYA: Traffic crawls and occasional chaos greeted motorists on the North-South Expressway (NSE) as they began returning home for the long festive holiday yesterday. Even those who started their journey as early as 4am in an attempt to beat the jam were not spared.
With an estimated 1.2 million vehicles using the NSE, bad-mannered and inconsiderate motorists who jumped queues and used emergency lanes compounded the problem.
Many Chinese had to miss their reunion dinners due to the extremely bad traffic congestion particularly from Sungai Buloh to Ipoh.
The south-bound traffic from Kuala Lumpur was also heavy especially along the Nilai-Seremban stretch but the situation was not as bad as the route to the north.
At the height of the congestion from 10am to 2pm, vehicles moved at only 10kph to 20kph through some stretches of roads.
An irate motorist who wanted to be known only as Tan called to say that he had to “crawl” at 10kph throughout his journey from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth.
“I called PLUS (Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan) to ask why they had not prepared for the rush but was told that there was nothing they could do now.
“I hope something can be done the next time as the traffic volume will increase every year,” he said.
PLUS corporate communications senior manager Khalilah Talha said there were reports of motorists stopping along emergency lanes due to overheated cars, which made things worse.
The PLUS operations room reported that parking bays at all rest and recreation areas and lay-bys between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh were packed until late evening with some tired motorists parking their vehicles along the highway near these areas.
According to the operations room, the congestion along the NSE started late Friday when those who were not working yesterday began returning to their hometowns.
However, the traffic jam along the Jalan Duta-Tanjung Malim stretch eased slightly after 3am.
But it started again less than hour later and became progressively worse as the hours passed.
By mid-afternoon, the congestion had spilled over to the North Klang Valley Expressway.
Congestion was also particularly bad at the Ipoh Selatan and Jelapang toll plazas almost throughout the whole day.
In Johor Baru, the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex at the Causeway and the Second Link were jam-packed with holidaymakers.
An Immigration Department spokesman said it had opened 36 additional counters to accommodate the large number of people who wanted to enter and exit Malaysia.
At least 150 immigration officers would be manning the counters.
The congestion eased by evening but is expected to recur tomorrow and on Tuesday when Singaporeans return to the republic to start work on Thursday, the spokesman said.
A spokesman for Linkedua (M) Berhad said about 15,000 vehicles from Singapore had been entering Malaysia daily for the last two days and the numbers would remain high until Thursday.
The company has opened all six lanes both ways to cater for the increasing number of vehicles, he said.
Meanwhile, a Bukit Aman traffic police spokesman in Kuala Lumpur said the balik kampung rush for the Chinese New Year holiday was expected to go on until today as motorists continue to leave the Klang Valley in droves.
She said the Jelapang toll plaza in Ipoh was reported to be the worst affected as all vehicles must exit and re-enter the highway before proceeding to the next destination.
She added that on Friday, the fifth day of Ops Sikap X, 22 deaths and 1,093 accidents were reported with municipal roads recording the highest number of accidents at 554.