EXPRESSWAYS (Steps to ease traffic congestion during peak hours)

Mr Teo Chong Tee asked the Minister for Communications what improvements are being made to ease the daily traffic congestion along all the expressways during morning and evening peak hours.

The Minister of State for Communications (Cdre (Res) Teo Chee Hean) (for the Minister for Communications): Mr Speaker, Sir, I am answering on behalf of the Minister for Communications.

Although there is some peak-hour traffic congestion along certain localised stretches, especially on the Pan Island Expressway and the Central Expressway, this is not widespread. Nevertheless, with increasing number of vehicles on our roads, it is to be expected that travelling speeds will deteriorate.

There are two ways to keep our roads free-flowing. One way is to increase road capacity, and the other is to control ownership and usage of vehicles.

To increase road capacity, roads will be widened where feasible. There is an on-going programme to widen the stretch of the Pan Island Expressway between Jalan Eunos and the Bukit Timah Expressway, and the stretch of the Central Expressway between Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and the Pan Island Expressway. The widening of these expressways will be completed by July 1994. The following expressways are also being constructed by the PWD: extension of the Tampines Expressway from Lorong Halus to Seletar Expressway; extension of the Seletar Expressway from Upper Thomson Road to Bukit Timah Expressway; extension of the Pan Island Expressway from Hong Kah to Tuas; and the Kranji Expressway.

However, in land scarce Singapore, there is a limit to road building. Consequently, there is a limit to the number of vehicles that we can have on our roads, hence the need to keep an overall cap on the total vehicle population via the Vehicle Quota System. In addition, measures like the Area Licensing Scheme and in future the Electronic Road Pricing system will enable us to maximise the use of our roads. In this way, we can increase our vehicle population while keeping our roads relatively congestion-free.

Mr Chng Hee Kok (Tampines GRC): Sir, will the Minister of State enlighten the House as to the progress of the Electronic Road Pricing system as well as the manual road pricing system that was announced about one year ago?

Cdre (Res) Teo Chee Hean: Mr Speaker, Sir, the manual road pricing system will be implemented first in the Central Business District (CBD) next year, as has already been announced. For the Electronic Road Pricing system, trials are currently in progress to assess the technical suitability of the systems being proposed.