Abdullah Saidol
THE first 300, of the 5,000 new telecommunication (telco) towers to be built in Sarawak, will be fully operational next year.
Assistant Minister of Corporate Affairs Abdullah Saidol told the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) today that building telco towers in Sarawak has been “extremely challenging”.
He said Sarawak was geographically almost as big as the Peninsular, while many of these new towers were being built in rural areas on rough terrain.
He also said in Sarawak, the construction of telco towers involved 20 agencies including the Land and Survey Department, Sesco, Public Works Department (JKR), local councils and network services providers.
“If you ask me how long does it take to build the 5,000 towers, well let us build the first 300 towers first,” he said in reply to Ali Biju (PKR – Krian).
He also told Ali that he did not have the specific number of new telco towers to be built in Krian, but he assured the PKR lawmaker that details would be furnished once he had it.
On another matter, Assistant Minister of Water Supply Datuk Liwan Lagang also told the august House that the GPS-held Sarawak government is using its own funds to upgrade the water supply in Samarahan Division.
In his reply to Ir Aidel Lariwoo (GPS – Sadong Jaya), he said the Sarawak government was allocating RM400 million for this purpose.
The works included repair of treatment plants and tanks, building new submarine pipes to increase the water supply from the Kuching Water Board to Asajaya, replacing old pipes to prevent blocked ones, increasing the numbers of booster stations and high level tanks and improving main pipes.
He also said this involved 11 projects, of which four were already completed and 11 were ongoing. All projects are expected to be completed before the end of next year.