Aim of having this management body is to settle traffic woes, to be handled by qualified people
(From right) Masing briefs Balai Ringin assemblyman and PRS Youth chief Snowdan Lawan and PRS information chief Datuk Wilfred Rata Nissom on how the coastal highway of Sarawak could be improved further to serve more people in major towns and cities.
KUCHING: The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Transportation has proposed the setting up of a ‘Traffic Management Unit’ to look into traffic problems across the state.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing hoped the unit could be assembled soon.
“We have sent all the necessary requirements and are now waiting for the state government to approve it. If we don’t do it now, it will become a problem for us in the future. It should have been formed a long time ago, but we didn’t,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday. “Of course we need to get the right people.”
Masing, who is also Infrastructure Development and Transportation Minister, said among its many objectives, the unit would study how his ministry could manage traffic flow to reduce congestions in towns and cities.
“It will be led by people who are well qualified. We must nip the traffic woes in the bud before it worsens,” he said.
On a related issue, Masing – also PRS president – took a swipe at Sabah’s Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president Datuk Dr Jeffery Kitingan for criticising the federal government for continuing to brag about the proposed Pan Borneo Highway. Kitingan believed the mammoth undertaking was ‘just an election gimmick’.
“It’s better than nothing, and you cannot cry over spilt milk. What has been done is done. There’s nothing we can do about what had been done in the past,” said Masing, stressing that it was crucial for the state government to plan its infrastructure development properly so that it would benefit everyone.
“Right now, we have a federal government who listens to us. Let’s not say ‘You have short-changed us for the last 50 years; instead, let’s ask the federal government to do what they hadn’t done in the past,” Masing said.
“We are not blaming you, and we are not crying over the past because we cannot rewrite history. It’s better late than never because at least we would get something.”
Meanwhile, the deputy chief minister said the five-mile road extension project now under construction between Mile 10 and Mile 15 should ease the traffic congestion along the Kuching-Serian Road.
“My ministry is taking the necessary steps in tackling the traffic jam along that stretch.”