Senai International Airport not closed

Senai International Airport not closed

The management of Senai International Airport today denied claims the airport was forced to close today due to worsening haze.

Its chief operating officer, Noor Safura Suib reaffirmed that so far all operations at the airport was going on smoothly and all flights were on schedule.

"We pray the winds favor us and take all this haze out of Senai," she told Bernama here.

Confusion arose when Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) issued a statement yesterday saying that the Malaysia Cup match between Johor Darul Ta'zim II and Kedah scheduled here for tonight had been postponed as the Senai International Airport had to be closed yesterday due to worsening haze.

It is understood that the flight supposed to be taken by the Kedah squad from Penang yesterday evening, was cancelled due to the haze in Senai.

Thick haze had forced four airlines to cancel 21 flights to Senai International Airport early yesterday morning. Noor Safura said, their chief executive officer Mohd Rani Hisham Samsudin had also clarified the real situation to the media yesterday.

"Senai International Airport is not closed and operating as normal and all flights that were cancelled were because of the haze," said Mohd Rani.

The Air Pollutant Index reading in Larkin Lama as at 9am this morning was 92, while in Pasir Gudang it was 88.

An API reading of 0 to 50 indicates good air quality; 51 to 100, moderate; 101 to 200, unhealthy; 201 to 300, very unhealthy and 300 and above, hazardous.

~News courtesy of The Sun~

Vehicle Entry Permit to Johor delayed

Vehicle Entry Permit to Johor delayed

Drivers who make frequent trips to Malaysia will not be required to hold a Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) until the end of the year at least.

The Oct 1 deadline to register will be pushed back by at least another four months to give authorities time to develop a radio frequency identification tag that is clone and tamper proof, a Malaysian Ministry of Transport (MOT) spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday.

The VEP, which has a five-year validity, costs vehicle owners an administrative fee of RM10 (S$3.27).

Upon payment, each owner will need to collect a tag to stick on their car windshield.

"Don't worry. If you have no tag on Oct 1, you will not be stopped at the border," said the spokesman. "The latest decision is that we want a better tag that is tamper and clone proof, so we are trying to enhance the tag at this point of time."

It will take about four months to finalise the tag's design.

Vehicle owners will then be given "ample time" - several months - to collect it, he said.

"We will announce the cut-off date for all Singaporean vehicles to display the tag when we are ready. It could be in June next year."

He added that collection information will be sent to applicants when the tags are ready. Although details are still being ironed out, the plan is for vehicle owners to be able to pick them up at several locations, including roadside rest areas.

Many motorists were fretting about the Oct 1 deadline. Some gave up on registering, citing the onerous process and problematic website. Others who managed to register said they had not received information on how to collect the tags.

About 74,000 drivers of Singapore-registered vehicles have submitted VEP applications since Aug 15, when online registration began.

Malaysian authorities expected 200,000 to 300,000 Singapore-registered private vehicles to be enrolled by the end of this year.

Muhammad Shiraq, 25, who registered his family car for the VEP in early September, has not received information on where to collect the tag.

The engineering student, who visits Malaysia once a month with his family for meals and shopping, also said that it was tedious filling up the registration form as it required specific information, like the vehicle chassis number and insurance expiry date.

"Having to wait after the tedious process is frustrating," he said. "Why can't they prepare everything on their side first before asking us to register?"

Malaysia's VEP will initially involve foreign-registered vehicles entering the country via Johor, and will later be implemented at the country's other 12 road entry points.

On Aug 1 last year, Singapore increased the cost of the VEP for foreign vehicles entering the Republic from $20 to $35 a day. It also raised the cost of the Goods Vehicle Permit from $10 to $40.

~News courtesy of My Paper~

Air quality in Peninsular Malaysia remains bad

Air quality in Peninsular Malaysia remains bad

Air quality remained bad today as the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia continued to be blanketed by a heavy shroud of haze, with many coastal cities recording an unhealthy reading on the Air Pollutant Index (API).

According to readings published on the Department of Environment's (DOE) website, six locations including Seremban, Malacca, and Putrajaya were rated as unhealthy (100-200) on the API as at 5pm today.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said in a statement today that the haze is caused by open burning of forests and land in Sumatera, Indonesia according to satellite images captured by the Singaporean based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The agency detected 132 hot spots in Kalimantan, Indonesia, alone, while only one hot spot was detected in Sumatera due to incomplete satellite coverage as of Sunday.

According to satellite coverage, the ministry said, the haze is expected to spread to Pahang and to east Johor in the next 48 hours while in East Malaysia the haze from Kalimantan is expected to spread to west Sarawak and the waters surrounding both Sabah and Sarawak in the same period of time.

The ministry said the country is still experiencing the southwest monsoon phase that is expected to end by mid-September and noted that the haze will likely dissipate by the monsoon transition phase in October.

Meanwhile, the Environment Department will continue monitoring the status and trend of air quality on an hourly basis due to the uncertain haze situation and increased hot spots in Sumatera and Kalimantan.

All government agencies relevant to haze disaster response have also stepped up efforts in preventing open burning locally that will worsen the already unhealthy air quality.

Local governments and land owners have also been instructed to closely monitor and take preventive actions in places that could easily catch fire such as waste disposal spots, forests, farm land, and industrial complexes.

Meanwhile, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar will also head to Indonesia as soon as possible to meet his counterpart there to discuss solutions and to finalise a memorandum of understanding on cross-border haze prevention.

~News courtesy of The Sun~

Registration period for Singapore vehicles entering Malaysia extended to Oct 1

Registration period for Singapore vehicles entering Malaysia extended to Oct 1

Malaysian authorities have extended the registration period for the Vehicle Entry Permit to Oct 1 to give more motorists the chance to register their vehicles as well as to enable the delivery of Radio Frequency Identification cards and approval by the authorities in both countries.

Only 45,000 Singapore vehicles have registered for the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) levied on foreign cars entering Malaysia, according to Malaysian authorities.

VEP registration has now been extended to Oct 1 to enable the delivery of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) cards and approval by the authorities in both countries.

State Public Works, Rural and Regional Development Committee chairman Hasni Mohammad admitted that the VEP registration system still needed some improvement.

"Only 45,000 foreign vehicles have registered for the VEP compared to the expected 500,000 vehicles," he said after visiting the VEP registration counter at Sultan Iskandar building on Tuesday (Sep 1). "The two weeks starting Aug 15 did not allow all the foreign vehicles to be registered online or over the counter."

Since Aug 15, motorists could register online and pay a RM10 (S$3.35) fee for a five-year period before the Road Transport Department (RTD) issued RFID cards. Once registered, the vehicles would be allowed to enter Johor free of charge for one month from Sep 1 to Sep 30. Motorists will have to pay RM20 for VEP for each entry from Oct 1.

"It is not just to provide comfort to those who have registered but also to ensure that all the rules and regulations are adhered to," Mr Hasni said. He said as many as 200,000 to 230,000 vehicles of various types went through the two checkpoints weekly.

In August, Malaysia's Transport Ministry pushed back the start date of the VEP fee from Sep 1 to Oct 1.

The VEP is levied on all passenger vehicles (including MPVs and SUVs). Government vehicles, motorcycles, public buses and taxis are exempted from payment but still need to register with RTD.

~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~