KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia government has declassified most documents related to toll road deals, but confusion reigned at the Works Ministry library for opposition politicians and reporters.

They complained that much of the content was too technical or incomplete and that they just had no time to digest all the information.

With public viewing in the morning restricted to only five people at one time for a maximum of two hours and one document each, reporters had to rely on information supplied by politicians, who were given priority to read the agreements.

Among the 'incomplete' documents were the deals for the SMART Tunnel in Kuala Lumpur, which came with only the first 118 pages, without any appendix or schedules, and the Shapadu toll agreement, which was only 16 pages long.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians questioned the huge profits that highway operators seem to be making.

Opposition MP Tony Pua, who led a delegation from the Democratic Action Party, said the Damansara-Puchong Highway was making excessive profits and called for the government to stop compensating the operator. 'Between 1997 and 2006, it was supposed to have made a profit of RM1.22 billion (S$513 million), nearly the construction cost. So their collection to date has more than paid for the highway and what they are collecting for the next 20 years is excess profits.'

He called on the government to nationalise the highways to lighten the financial burden of the people and keep toll charges at a minimum.

Separately, yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng urged the federal government to buy over all the major highway concessions and run them as a business.

'It would not cost much to buy over certain major highways like the North-South Expressway... the government would be able to regain the investment through toll collection. Wouldn't it be better for the government and Malaysia's 27 million people to gain this revenue instead of one private company?' he asked.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK