KUCHING: It has been confirmed that the partially affected buildings at Jalan Ang Cheng Ho here, due to the ongoing work of Kuching City Centre Wastewater Management System, are still safe for occupation.
Lau Hieng Ung
Director of Sarawak Sewerage Services Department (SSD) Lau Hieng Ung said an independent agency (name undisclosed) had established facts that these buildings would not collapse despite having developed cracks.
He added that the contractor of the project had negotiated with the affected property owners and some of the buildings were now being fixed.
A few traders were worried that the maintenance work might affect their daily business and thus some work had been rescheduled, he told The Borneo Post’s sister paper See Hua Daily News here yesterday.
It was reported two months ago that some buildings at Jalan Ang Cheng Ho, Padungan had become slightly fractured due to the tunnelling work for the mega project.
Lau pointed out that the respective evaluation reports would be handed out to the property owners as an assurance.
Since the contractor was carrying out maintenance work on the slightly fractured buildings, compensation in the form of money would not be looked into, he said.
“Compensation does not necessarily be monetary. Fixing the fractured parts of the buildings is a form of compensation because the costs are borne by the contractor,” he added.
As to when the maintenance would be completed, it depended very much on the needs of the respective property owners, he said.
Above all, he said both the contractor and affected property owners must co-operate to get the repair work done as soon as possible.
He also assured that the department would closely monitor the repair work.