GEORGE TOWN: The Penang state government will protest any attempt to increase the toll for the existing Penang Bridge,Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Wednesday, April 7.

Commenting on a vernacular newspaper report quoting sources that the toll rate for the Penang Bridge also would be raised along with the other expressways in the country, between 10% to 66%, Lim said the increase would defeat Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia concept of "People First, Performance Now".

"We will oppose any decision to raise the toll rate for the Penang Bridge.

"The concessionaire of the bridge would have already reaped their profits many folds via toll collection and also compensation from the federal government for differing toll hikes.

"What is the meaning of the 1Malaysia concept, that the people come first, when in this respect, it will be one company which rakes in the millions, while the people have to pay more?

"This surely would not augur well for the prime minister's 1Malaysia concept, which seems more rhetoric than reality," Lim said after launching McDonald's No Plastic Bag Day campaign here.

Lim then reiterated his call for all the highways in the country to be nationalised, with the federal government taking over the highways from the concessionaires.

The Penang Bridge toll rates have not been revised since the bridge was first opened to the public in September 1985.

Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd (PBSB) is the concessionaire of the Penang Bridge and is responsible for managing, operating, upgrading and collecting toll under a 25-year concession from Aug 15, 1993 to May 31, 2018.

Prior to that, the bridge was managed by Mekar Idaman Sdn Bhd.

Over the years, numerous attempts have been made by the companies for a hike in toll rates, which have been shot down by the federal government.

It is also learnt that upon completion of the Second Penang Crossing from Batu Kawan to Batu Maung on the island in 2013, the existing bridge toll rates would be increased in tandem with that imposed on the new bridge.

The toll rates vary from RM1.40 for motorcycles, RM7 for cars, RM12 for lorries and buses with two axles and four wheels, RM25 for lorries, van and buses with two axles and six wheels, RM45 for vehicles with three axles, RM60 for four axles, and RM75 for five or more axles.

The bridge's daily traffic has reached over 100,000 vehicles with the recent expansion of the bridge from two to three lanes on each side with a dedicated motorcycle lane on each side of the bridge.