SERIAN: Kuching is among the 10 cities in the country to be given subsidy for its public transportation, disclosed Infrastructure Development and Communications Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin.
He said the subsidy would be given by the government through the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
He also said a consortium had been set up for this purpose by the existing five bus companies in Kuching and they had identified 500 kilometres of routes in Kuching that the buses would be servicing.
“Under the initiative, buses servicing a route will be given subsidy per kilometre irrespective whether there is passenger or not.
“To be entitled for that subsidy, the bus companies have to buy new buses,” he told a press conference after launching Christmas Day Road safety Campaign at Serian Community Hall here yesterday.
He disclosed that SPAD and the bus companies were supposed to sign an agreement last month but was postponed because both parties were still negotiating on the quantum of subsidy.
“We are hopeful that we can start (the bus service) by middle or end of next year. When in operation, the buses will arrive at the stations every 30 minutes.”
When introduced, he hoped that more people would opt to use public transport and the number of vehicles on the road would be less, thus reducing road accidents.
On the roads in the state, he admitted that a lot of them were still “substandard” compared to the ones in Peninsular Malaysia.
“They have highways and we don’t even have highways. We only have trunk roads and even the trunk roads are not dual carriageways.”
Meanwhile, Manyin said the Works Ministry had already proposed for the state to have dual carriageways for the stretch of Pan-Borneo trunk road from Miri to Kuching and Kuching to Sematan under phase one and from Limbang to Lawas and Sematan to Tanjung Datu under phase two of the project.
“According to what they have planned, hopefully you and I can drive by the year 2021.”
He assured that no toll would be charged on the dual carriageways because the road would not be a highway.
“It will just be a trunk road, the Pan Borneo Trunk Road. You cannot introduce toll because there are a lot of spur routes and secondly, the project will be paid by the government. Thirdly, there is no alternative road which is a requirement if we were to have a toll.”