It is baffling how such a proposal was even thought of – don’t we have enough roads linking us from the north to the south? Why is there a need to build a second highway along the NSE when there are already the trunk (federal) and state roads? The NSE was built more than 20 years ago to be an alternative to the trunk roads. However, it seems that most of us have conveniently forgotten about the trunk roads. Do we really need three roads that will basically take us from Point A to Point B?

If the government is so adamant about building another highway, why doesn’t it focus on building one from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur instead? Or how about our Sabah and Sarawak counterparts? There are plenty of other

opportunities elsewhere, so why are we wasting taxpayers’ money on something that is clearly redundant – this is extremely unfair to those who don’t live along these routes and will probably never use these roads, and who will not be able to reap the benefits (should there be any).

Also, the NSE is not even fully utilised. The roads are clear most of the time and are congested only during certain peak times and a few days in a year during festive seasons. So what makes the government think there will be enough traffic for a second north-south highway? How sure are they that they will make enough to break even, let alone make any profit? And if they don’t, then once again the government would have to bail out the appointed concessionaire – and we are back to square one.

What the government should do is improve on current public transportation instead, by building more efficient trains that depart on an hourly basis. This would not only help eradicate traffic on the roads, but also cut travel costs, reduce accidents, be more environment-friendly and even provide more jobs to a certain extent.

The government could also perhaps look at upgrading the NSE by building more lanes. This will definitely alleviate any congestion that the NSE might see and for a fraction of the cost of building a new highway which is estimated to be around RM6 billion. Also, if accessibility to the NSE is the root of the problem, then perhaps we should be building more feeder roads leading to the NSE instead.

In finding new, exciting and extremely costly "solutions", let us not be hasty in spending the rakyat’s money unless all other more viable options are considered first.

Saesha Razak
Kelana Jaya