(Eagle News) — Valenzuela City mayor Rex Gatchalian has lifted the suspension that his city government had imposed on the business permit of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Corporation, but with conditions that it would prevent a repeat of the previous traffic gridlock due to problems with the RFID implementation.
Gatchalian said that the conditions are necessary so that NLEX would realize that the complaints of the riding public and motorists should not be set aside for the sake of profit.
Among the conditions he had set are the following:
-Barriers up daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily in tollways for vehicles with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) stickers
-System upgrade of tollways, including the implementation of cashless transaction, by Jan. 30, 2021
-return of cash lanes but to be placed at the side of tollways
-continuous coordination with a working group to prevent traffic
“Pag hindi nabasa ang RFID, dapat tuluy-tuloy pa rin,” Gatchalian said in an interview with Eagle News Service’s Mata ng Agila program host Ely Saludar.
The mayor said that any errors in RFID reading should not place the riding public at a disadvantage.
“Kung gusto nilang protektuhan kita nila, maginvest sila sa teknolohiyang maayos,” he said.
But Mayor Gatchalian that by 10 p.m., the barriers should again be put down for “safety reasons.”
This is to avoid trucks from from overspeeding at night.
But Gatchalian said that this conditional lifting should still be revisited.
The Valenzuela City mayor said that he imposed the suspension of the NLEX business permit to push NLEX to improve its service.
“So that they improve themselves. Hindi puedeng patay malisya sa mga complaint,” he said.
Gatchalian suspended NLEX’s business permit on Dec. 7, preventing NLEX from collecting toll fees from motorists, passing through Valenzuela City.
(Eagle News Service)