MOTORISTS can expect to pay more over the next few months to use the roads when five new ERP gantries are up, many in the heart of residential areas.

The gantries are in Upper Bukit Timah Road (outside Hume Park), Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Upper Boon Keng Road, Kallang Bahru Road and Geylang Bahru Road.

All except the ones in Toa Payoh Lorong 6 and Geylang Bahru Road have been completed.

The Land Transport Authority has not announced when these new gantries will be switched on, but already residents are concerned why their neighbourhoods are targetted.

Commenting on the gantry outside Hume Park, Bukit Timah resident Mr Burven Lee, 43, said: 'The road here does get jammed up. But will a gantry solve the problem?'

'My feeling is that it will just redistribute traffic around,' the director of a statutory board added.

Toa Payoh resident 68-year-old retiree Tony Chan wanted to know why the gantry at Toa Payoh Lorong 6 is sited near the entrance to the residential area.

The LTA spokesman explained that the location of the gantry is unlikely to affect residents as it charges motorists entering into Toa Payoh from Braddell Road who add on to the traffic in the area.

He added that if gantries were at exit points, more Toa Payoh residents would be affected. Also it would plug a gap in series of gantries forming an outer cordon around the city.

The new gantries are part of the LTA's plans to have an 'outer cordon' to control traffic going into the city.