The works ministry has confirmed parts of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Expressway (KLK) will be widened with additional lanes beginning this year, NST reports. This comes after the government agreed to the proposal put forth last year, which included the construction of a new tunnel at Genting Sempah.
According to deputy works minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad, the concessionaire for the KLK, ANIH, is expected to begin works in the third quarter of this year after the design for the RM2.1 billion project is finalised.
“The works ministry has approved the proposal to widen the KLK which will be carried out by ANIH Bhd and the project is expected to be completed in 2026. The 45.3 km stretch between the Gombak toll plaza and the Mempaga intersection (Central Spine Road) in Bentong will be widened,” said Abdul Rahman.
In detail, the stretch between the Gombak toll plaza and Bukit Tinggi will be widened from the existing three lanes to four lanes on both sides, while the two lanes between Bukit Tinggi and the Bentong toll plaza will be expanded to three lanes.
As for the new tunnel at Genting Sempah, it will be built next to the eastbound tunnel from Pahang and feature two lanes. The job scope will also include new street lights be installed along the highway.
Abdul Rahman said these initiatives are meant to make the KLK more comfortable, fast and efficient for road users, as well as addressing the issue of congestion, especially during festive seasons, public holidays and weekends.
“The ministry is aware of the complaints by the people who have to spend long hours on the road to return to their respective hometowns during the festive season. Severe traffic congestion often occurs during peak hours leading up to festivals, public holidays and weekends. In order to provide convenience to the public, especially motorists who frequently use the stretch, the government sees the road widening works as an effort to provide comfort to the people in the future,” he said.
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This is how you prolong a concession. Learn from the expert.
Why need specially build? They just need to do contra-flow during seasonal period. When ECRL is ready, many can travel using train
Many still do not use mrt/lrt in KL. I doubt if many will use ecrl to their kampung. Train ticket price for entite family is not cheap. Better to drive point to point.
Plus central spine road, the toll free highway between bentong to kota baru will be completed soon.
Inb4 our beloved Kelantan MB from Pas claimed federal roads to kota bharu is only in use Once a year.
So better dun waste any public funds to expand…
It was Penang CM that made that claim.
Exactly. “Changing mindset” is what Road Transport minister suggested to do next. Building adhoc infra is just waste of money
The Karak highway was built in a feverish pace during the mega projects era 2 decades ago.
Only stupid planners will plan 2/3 lanes each way for a super connectivity highway to the East coast.
This shows,the bastards have no long term traffic view in mind.All they want is to quickly appoint MTD to start n finish fast,for cronies to collect payment fast.
Just less than 25 years,the highway is congested like mad during Raya.
People in Sri Gombak got problem coming out of their taman by going to MRR2 Melati direction.They can go kepong ,but on way home got caught in massive jams after the Bt Caves temple.
Now the germen perpaduan lobbyists finally got a big fat cake..a 2 Billion Rm mega project.
In Malaysia, no matter how many lanes, confirm jam.
Look at Puchong, now total 11 lanes (or more, I don know) also jam, not to mention flood
That’s exactly how this strategy works: Not at all. Everywhere, not only in Malaysia. Just that here, we do not yet admit it.
Puchong already got lrt station but nobody uses it as its too hot to walk.
the stretch near Bentong, jams regularly.
And on Sunday evenings, the stretch back towards KL, jams for a few kilometres.
Abusing emergency lane huh. Tangkap and Saman Kaw-Kaw. Everybody is rushing, not just them.
Should widen bottelneck roads.. Bentong/Raub/guamusang and so on
I was using KLK almost every month, sad to see more and more deforestation due to ECRL project. I suppose more green will turn to grey due to this initiative later. The price we pay for modernization. Hopefully we could plant some trees to preserve the nature
ECRL already in progress, if finished I think it will reduce the traffic. I strongly feel they should built another highway connecting Pahang and Negri Sembilan, traffic flow from Negri Sembilan to East Coast can be diverted that way. Or else double track from Gemas to Tumpat but that may not be economically feasible.
ECRL…oh my …it is to carry livestock like lembu n cement…passenger load will be negligible,except during Raya n long weekends.
The ECRL is an unwanted mega project due to the maverick who is in jail now.
Traffic with be as bad during long weekends n Raya,with or without ECRL .The jams start from Bt Caves Temple all the way to the Gombak toll.
agree that an entirely separate highway linking Negri to the east-coast needs to be given serious thought. Currently the Negri stretch of the NS highway is horribly congested because all highway roads seem to connect there.
They are currently building the 4 lane central spine road. This is suppose to link senawang part of NS highway all the way to kota baru via bentong, toll free. You can check its current status on you tube by enthusiasts.
wait so they built an entire ecrl train system to simply revert and cater to car culture? my goodness leave existing roads as is and make people ride the train! idgi you don’t want to be stuck in traffic then the alternative is already being built. sigh…anything to cater to these highway concessions i guess. sickening.
in before “not every family will be able to afford the train/people usually bring back a bunch of stuff back to their kampungs” well then wouldn’t the feasibility study done predict this already? like it’s one of the other lah. build the train or widen the highway. but doing both? our non existent money is really just being thrown away at this point. not to mention when the road eventually reverts back to 2 lanes what do you think is going to happen? even worse traffic duuuhh.
Bijok… pahtu sambung lg 30 tahun. Ecrl dah nak siap
just increase the Karak tolls to 500%
so youtubers/racers/bikers/convoys wont go up Karak for no reasons.
Why don’t upgrade the old road from Gombak to Bentong so we can used when jamming season is on .
Dont forget to widen the NS highway too. KL-ipoh minimum. My last trip, even after ipoh it was crawling as lorries struggle to go uphill from ipoh till taiping. So eiden that as well.
Plus it took one hour to travel from sq petani to sg dua in prai on a sunday. And snother hour ftom juru to batu kawan. All these after paying toll. When we pay, we do not expect congestion.
PLUS highway administrstors are busy collecting money but not giving users its money’s worth.
Agree 1000%
Plus must add a 3rd lane from Cangkat Jering onwards to the north now as the completion of the WCE which converges at CJ will result in a bottleneck situation as traffic from 4 lanes (including 2 from the NS highway) flow into the already busy NS highway near Taiping.
Besides widening the road, please seriously reassess the Gombak plaza tol that contributed the massive jam!!!
I aggred, removed all tol booths and replace with online payments (anpr). Easy flow traffic fingers crossed no jams
Masa buat Karak dulu punyala takut segala Jin bagai. Sanggup buat hiway bengkang-bengkok, nak elak bukit takut Jin sumpah. Masalah Karak adalah hiway yg x boleh di drive at 110km/h.
Widen the highway but when exit at Gombak, bottleneck at both exit. Should widen that stretch together with the highway.
More space for the Volkswagen kuning…
In the meantime, please introduce CONTRA FLOW on Friday evening till Saturday (Bentong Bound), and Sunday afternoon till Monday morning (KL Bound). Including the tunnel. 1 lane will do. I am genting texi driver, sometimes I feel that the toll operator is sleeping, can’t they learn from other highway?
Don’t forget Seberang Jaya
other option, create other entry point from Selatan (N9 to enter the KLK hiway)…better to have another route to divert trafic meet at Gombak…
Scrap cars above 20yrs n u see instant results. No need widening. No more bullshit
Scrapping cars that are more than 20 years old would only cut down the number of old cars on the road & doesn’t necessarily reduce the overall number of vehicles on the road, because it is more than likely that those old cars will be replaced by newer ones.
By 2026? All bluff. It takes forever to complete road works in this country. Look at privately managed projects like SPE and EKVE. It would be worse if managed by JKR.
Here is wisdom. If hole wider also easy entry for tunnel only ok so logic wide road also the satisfaction better driving. Master Foo
Now we’ll have 5 lanes hogging instead of 3 currently. It wont ease the congestion.