KL Mayor Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz said Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) did not intend to have a complete ban on such vehicles.

“Heavy vehicles are not allowed to enter the city during peak hours, from 6.30am to 9.30am and from 4.30pm to 7.30pm,” he said today at DBKL headquarters.

Amin was responding to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar who had said larger vehicles outnumbered the kapchai, or small-engine motorcycles, in the city.

“So why ban the small vehicles and not the big ones?” Wan Junaidi had said.

Junaidi was in turn responding to Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s proposal to ban small motorcycles to reduce carbon emissions.

Yesterday, Tengku Adnan had said his ministry was looking at prohibiting the motorcycles and deterring people from driving into the capital once public transport was available at a reasonable price.

Such an initiative, which he said was adopted in “many cities”, was to reduce carbon emissions.

Tengku Adnan also said small motorcycles were used by snatch thieves in the city.

Amin said the proposed ban on kapchai entering the city centre would be reviewed when public transport projects in the city were completed.

He said for the time being, it would not be implemented as it required discussions with various parties and a study whether it was appropriate to ban the kapchai.