Zulkifli (right) and others listen to Ting (second left) during the project briefing.
KUCHING: A new Cure and Care Rehabilitation Centre (CCRC) built at a cost of RM25.8 million will be completed in April 2020.
Located at KM23 Jalan Borneo Height, work on the centre started on Oct 22 last year with a new contractor to replace the previous contractor which failed to complete the job.
National Anti Drug Agency (AADK) director-general Dato Sri Zulkifli Abdullah visited the project site yesterday, which has entered the three per cent stage of physical progress.
He said the new centre would be able to accommodate 250 inmates, compared to the old building which could only accommodate 100 inmates.
“It is the only centre of its kind in Sarawak, and probably won’t be able to accommodate all drug abusers in Sarawak. We will see what we can do in the future based on the financial capability of the government.
“We are now looking at the option of using Limbang Prison for another CCRC to cater for the drug abusers in the northern region,” he told reporters.
Zulkifli added that Sarawak recorded 5,345 drug abusers as of October last year, making it in 12th position in the country.
He also said that schools in Sarawak recorded the highest number of students tested positive for drugs after taking urine tests.
AADK has taken urine test of students from 301 schools in Sarawak, out of 1,700 schools across the country.
Zulkifli said there are seven high risk areas (drug abuse) in Sarawak, which are categorised as Red areas – Gita, Sri Aman, Miri, Bintulu, Sibu, Kuching and Kota Samarahan.
The situation in Sri Aman and Gita had improved to Green, while Miri, Bintulu, Sibu, Kuching and Kota Samarahan to Yellow.
Public Works Department engineer Ting Sie Chin, who oversees the building project, was also present during the visit.
Zulkifli said the previous contractor had to be terminated due their incapability to carry out the project. They only managed to do about 37 per cent of the work in two years.
It (previous contractor) had used up RM10 million of the RM32.7 million fund meant for the project.