Haze will not last till March 2016

Haze will not last till March 2016

The haze affecting the country currently will not last till March 2016, as claimed by certain parties.

"The current haze situation is caused by typhoon Champi and Typhoon Koppu, east of the Philippines, and when these typhoons hit landfall, the winds will change and the haze situation will improve after Oct 26," said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Madius Tangau in a statement today.

Madius said the coming northeast monsoon season from November will see a change in wind direction and will no longer carry over haze from Indonesia to Malaysia, despite the Indonesian forest fires expected to last until March.

Meanwhile, rainfall is expected to decrease nationwide due to typhoon Koppu, thus making the haze situation even worse.

According to the Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) weather outlook, typhoon Koppu is currently 1,187km north-east of Kudat, Sabah. It will eventually head north-west towards Taiwan.

In addition, typhoon Champi located 2,942km north-east of Kudat is slowly heading north.

The presence of both typhoons has affected the wind patterns across the country as a result, especially rainfall due to the moderate south-westerly winds.

Separately, the Department of Environment recorded 3,534 cases of open burning detected nationwide, from the start of the year to Oct 19.

As of 6pm today, a total of 27 areas recorded unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings, with Port Klang with the highest at 179, followed by Shah Alam at 164, and Kuala Selangor at 139.

~News courtesy of The Sun~

Cheaper TEKS1M by year-end

Cheaper TEKS1M by year-end, says SPAD

Teksi 1Malaysia (TEKS1M) fare rates will be reduced by year-end to encourage more people to use the service.

Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said today the commission is finalising a study to make the gold-brown taxis more popular.

It is also considering a new sedan-type car for TEKS1M other than the MPV-type vehicles," he said.

"We will standardise the fare rates between TEKS1M and budget taxis. Hopefully, we can announce it in a month or two," he told theSun.

Syed Hamid said when TEKS1M was introduced two years ago, SPAD had envisioned that it would lift the image of the taxi industry by providing better ride comfort and better quality drivers.

However, many cabbies were not keen to migrate to TEKS1M due to the vehicles' higher cost while the public preferred to use the cheaper budget taxis.

For Klang Valley and Johor Baru, the current flagfall rate for TEKS1M is RM4 with 30 sen for every 200m, while the budget taxi rate is 25 sen for every 200m with the flagfall fare set at RM3.

It also includes time-based charge of 30 sen for every 36 seconds for TEKS1M while the budget taxi is 25 sen for every 36 seconds.

Based on the current fare rate, for a 10km ride (based on distance rate), TEKS1M ‎would clock RM17.50 while budget taxi would cost RM14.25.

~News courtesy of The Sun~