KUCHING: There is an urgent need to turn Samalaju into a district in order to smoothen the urbanisation process of this industrial centre whose population is expected to reach 30,000 by 2020.
Majang Renggi (BN-Samalaju) said Samalaju Industrial Park, which comes under Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), has attracted some RM30 billion worth of investment.
“We need to upgrade Samalaju into a district so that we can provide the necessary support services to ensure that the park can move smoothly towards industrialisation,” he said in his debate in support of the state budget yesterday.
He also stressed the need for a more efficient service for scheduled waste management for the park which involved heavy industries such as aluminium- smelting, silicon-based and ferro-alloy.
“As such, I would like to suggest that the state government build a scheduled waste recovery plant at Samalaju Industrial Park as a long-term effort to tackle scheduled wastes from these heavy industries,” he said.
Majang also highlighted the urgent need for Samalaju to have its own health/medical clinic to cater to the increasing population because the nearest hospitals are in Bintulu about 60km away and Miri Hospital about 150km away.
“I would also like to request that a primary and secondary school be built at the new Samalaju New Township to provide education facilities for the increasing population,” he said, adding that the government had approved a new primary and secondary to be built at Mile 30 Bintulu-Miri Road.
He also hoped that the 4km Ulu Sungai Suai road be upgraded to provide better accessibility to residents from 19 longhouses, five villages, four primary schools and a health clinic. He also highlighted the squatting problem in Samalaju due to the increasing industrialisation in the area.
“There is an urgent need for the government to provide more affordable houses in Samalaju to address the increasing number of squatters especially at Sg Plan, along Bintulu-Tanjung Kidurong road and Tanjung Kidurong-Bakam road,” he said.