Laku, Sesco to ease way for road construction work

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GROUND VISIT: Lee (fifth left) with Kong (left), Hii (on Lee’s left) at the site. Chong is on right.

MIRI: The Northern Region Water Board (Laku) and Sesco agreed to speed up the relocation of their amenities, which is affecting the construction of the RM15 million Taman Tunku new road near Miri Airport here.

Revealing this to reporters yesterday, Communications Assistant Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin said this would enable the construction work to proceed speedily and smoothly.

“I have just spoken to the spokesmen for the two agencies.They agreed and would liaise with the consultants to speed up the relocation,” he said during a site inspection of the road.

Lee was accompanied by, among others, Hii King Chiong, chairman of main contractor Rich Venture Construction Sdn Bhd, Kumpulan Parabena project manager Ivy Chong and councillor Lawrence Kong, coordinating the relocation and re-commissioning of the two affected traffic lights.

Committee members of Miri United Hawkers Association also joined the team.

The assistant minister said he was there to find out the latest situation on the project and look into complaints of Taman Tunku residents on the road congestion problem.

The prolonged construction work is causing road users inconvenience, namely traffic jams in the area.

“Hopefully, cooperation from Laku and Sesco would expedite the work to solve the traffic woes,” said Lee who is also Senadin assemblyman.

Hii said the new 5.5 km access road stretching from the traffic light junction to Taman Jelita in Taman Tunku was constructed under the initiative of `Kumpulan Parabena’, a private company responsible for the cost of the project.

“The residents can look forward to smooth traffic flow upon its completion by year end,” he assured.

Hii apologised to the people affected, saying the reason for the delay was they needed time to relocate the 120 families in the squatter colony along that stretch of road.

Besides, the amenities belonging to Laku and Sesco had to be relocated and this takes time.

The completed road would be handed over to Miri City Council.

“It is given as a gift by the developer to the people of Taman Tunku in particular and the government in general,” he said.

To a question, Lee said there were 6,000 houses in Taman Tunku which had a population of 30,000.