West Coast Expressway (WCE) Section 2 from SKVE to KESAS opens midnight; toll-free travel for one month

Section 2 of the West Coast Expressway (WCE) opens to the public from midnight tonight (12:01 am Wednesday, January 22), for the 7.2 km alignment that runs from the South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) elevated interchange to the Shah Alam Expressway (SAE) elevated interchange, enabling direct connectivity to Port Klang.

Section 2 of the WCE is a continuation of the highway’s Section 1, which was opened on August 30 last year and which connects the Banting interchange to the South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) interchange; toll fare collection on this section began on September 30.

The new 7.2 km section of the highway offers highway users an alternative route from Banting to Shah Alam, Klang, Putrajaya, Kajang, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and vice versa with a direct connection to the SKVE and the KESAS Highway.

The opening of both Section 1 and Section 2 will expedite journeys from Shah Alam to Banting or the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang compared to existing routes, providing a positive impact upon the mobility of local residents and economic activities in surrounding areas.

Users of Section 2 of the WCE will enjoy toll-free travel when entering the highway from the SAE toll plaza to the SKVE elevated interchange, for a duration of one month, the works minister announced. The addition of the 7.2 km alignment that connects the SKVE elevated interchange with the SAE elevated interchange reduces travel time from one hour, to just 25 minutes, Nanta said.

“The opening of this alignment is also expected to help reduce operating costs for the logistics sector, facilitate the delivery of goods and increase Malaysia’s competitiveness on the international stage. This will directly attract investments to industrial areas and ports, besides creating job opportunities and being an economic catalyst,” works minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said at the opening of WCE Section 2.

This is the latest alignment of the 314.5 km-long highway to open, which connects Banting in Selangor to Taiping in Perak. With the completion of the WCE, the highway will be among the main catalysts for development and economic growth, particularly in the western corridor of Peninsular Malaysia.

It is also hoped that domestic tourism will grow while reducing congestion on highways from the Klang Valley to the north of the peninsula, said the works minister in his statement.

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