Second crossing joins neighbours amid tolls row

This was in marked contrast to the razzmatazz 75 years ago when the peninsula and the island, then under British rule, were first linked by the causeway, a road built on rockfill across the Strait of Johore.

Singapore's National Development Ministry said the opening of the 1.9-kilometre bridge from Tuas, in Singapore, to Tanjung Kupang, in the Malaysian state of Johore, marked another milestone in relations between the two countries.

But analysts said the absence of any ceremony or senior political figures reflected a coolness in ties arising from a row over tolls.

Malaysian Works Minister Samy Vellu proposed a set of charges ranging from M$8 for cars to M$50 for trucks, compared with only M$0.80 for cars and M$4.10 for trucks using the causeway. He said if people thought the toll rates were too steep they could "take the chance of waiting for hours" at the causeway, which is notorious for traffic jams.

Singapore's Minister of State for Communications, John Chen, said the proposed toll rates were too high and urged Malaysia to halve them.

He said that if Malaysia stuck to its proposed rates, Singapore would match them.

But on the eve of the bridge's opening, Mr Samy Vellu announced that no tolls would be collected for a month and Singapore's Communications Ministry said the island republic would also allow travellers free passage for a few weeks.

The bridge is capable of handling 200,000 vehicles a day, four times the number the causeway can carry, and regular travellers are looking forward to an easing of the difficulty in driving between Malaysia and Singapore.

A 44-km expressway links the new bridge to Malaysia's main north-south highway.

 Published in the South China Morning Post. Jan 3, 1998