File photo shows a classroom in a dilapidated primary school in Sarawak.
KUCHING: The first tranche of RM350 million of the RM1 billion contra loan allocated for repairs of dilapidated schools in Sarawak will be utilised during the first half of the year, said Works Minister Baru Bian.
He said the RM350 million will benefit 37 schools in the state, but did not disclose which schools.
“We expect to utilise the RM350 million first half of 2020. We have already identified the schools, 37 of them,” he said when met by The Borneo Post after chairing a joint committee meeting on federal projects in Sarawak at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Petra Jaya here today.
Baru added that the second tranche RM350 million of the RM1 billion contra loan will be utilised in the second half of this year while the third tranche which is the balance of RM300 million will be used in early 2021.
The RM1 billion contra loan for repairs of dilapidated schools in Sarawak is an arrangement agreed upon by the Sarawak government and federal government as a form of contra payment to the state loan of some RM2.4 billion.