KUALA LUMPUR: Traffic has started slowing down on several major highways heading towards the East Coast and northern regions, due to the surge of travelers heading back to their hometowns in preparation for Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
A Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) spokesperson told Bernama this morning as of 9am today, congestion began on the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway (KLK) between the Gombak and Genting Sempah stretch for about 17km from the Gombak toll plaza.
"The traffic flow towards the north from Slim River to Sungkai and from the Menora Tunnel to the Sungai Perak RnR is also observed to be slowing down," he said, adding the flow heading north from Bidor towards Tapah is sluggish.
An earlier accident at KM314.7 heading North from Tapah to Gopeng at 7.43am has been resolved, resulting in the resumption of smooth traffic flow.
Various Smartlane routes have been activated this morning, including from KM 4.5 to KM 1.9 heading South from Setia Tropika to Pasir Gudang, and from KM 27.0 to KM 19.0 heading South from Kulai to Senai, both in Johor.
Last night, the Malaysian Highway Authority had also reported that traffic had been congested on several routes, especially towards the east coast.
These included the Gombak Toll Plaza to Genting Sempah, Bukit Tinggi, and Lentang due to increased vehicles.
Traffic had also been slow last night on the northbound lane of the North-South Expressway Slim River to Sungkai and from Kuala Kangsar to Changkat Jering.
On March 29, the Works Ministry had said that over two million vehicles are expected to be on major highways during the Aidilfitri holidays.
The ministry had also projected increase in vehicle traffic on peak days, specifically on April 5, 6, 9, 12, 13 and 14.
It said the projected traffic figure represents a 15 per cent increase compared with the usual 1.82 million daily traffic volume.
For real-time traffic updates, the public can access information via the toll-free Plusline at 1-800-88-0000 and the Twitter page www.twitter.com/plustrafik. Alternatively, they can reach out to LLM at 1-800-88-7752 or visit their Twitter page at www.twitter.com/llminfotrafik.