Pan Borneo highway to be widened

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State government confident of expanding highway to double carriageway in 5 years’ time

KUCHING: The state government is confident that it will complete the proposed double carriageway Pan-Borneo highway from Sematan to Miri in the next five years.

This was stated by Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan at a news conference at his office here yesterday.

He added that the road has been constantly upgraded in stages, for instance the road from Kuching to Serian had been upgraded to a dual carriage way.

“We are very realistic about completing this project in the next five years. We are making this project our main priority now,”

Touching on the same issue, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communication Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong said the remaining distance of 710km double carriageway road from Serian to Miri would cost RM9 billion.

“We can start whenever the money has been allocated to us,” he said.

He also disclosed that the government would build a third bridge across Sg Sarawak linking e-mart in Matang area to Jalan Stephen Yong to ease congestion in Kuching city.

They were commenting on the pledge in the BN manifesto to build a 2,300km Pan-Borneo Highway from Sematan, Sarawak to Serudung, Sabah.

Meanwhile, Awang Tengah disclosed that only a small percentage of projects which were implemented since 2008 were considered ‘sick’ and gave the assurance that these projects were tightly monitored by a committee made up of the members of state cabinet as well as the relevant government agencies.

“We are monitoring these projects. If the main contractors were the problems then perhaps we will pay the subcontractors directly instead to expedite the projects,” he warned.