By Sheeda Fathil
SHAH ALAM, Dec 2 — The Selangor state government has allocated a total of RM25 million to strengthen public transport under the Selangor Mobility programme next year.
State executive councillor for public transport Ng Sze Han said, of the total amount, RM22 million was given to 11 local authorities to continue the implementation of Selangor Smart Bus.
“The remaining RM3 million is for the implementation of the Selangor Mobility Phase One programme which includes transit vans on demand (Demand-Responsive Transit or DRT.
“A total of six proposed DRT zones involving six local authorities, namely Petaling Jaya City Council, Subang Jaya City Council, Shah Alam City Council, Klang Municipal Council, Ampang Jaya Municipal Council and Selayang Municipal Council,” he said during the wind-up of the 2023 Selangor Budget, at the State Legislative Assembly sitting yesterday.
According to Ng, all the proposed zones are areas with one or more transit hubs to enable the use of DRT services as ‘first mile last mile service’.
“The chosen routes will take into account the small and narrow routes that cannot be reached with the use of existing buses. For the first phase, a total of four vehicles with a capacity of 10-15 seats for each zone are proposed,” he said.
The Selangor Smart Bus service is offered free of charge to local citizens while foreigners have to pay 90 cents from March 15 through the Citizen E-Payment (CEPat) application.
On November 25, Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari announced that the transit van service would be implemented in the first quarter of next year to complete the state’s public transport ecosystem.
He explained that the service, at a cost of RM25 million, complements the Selangor Smart Bus system which is unable to reach narrow and high-density routes.
Amirudin also added that transit vans work based on demand through a smart routing application, not like a stop-and-go bus.
