A file photo of Pan Borneo Highway under construction from Sungai Awik Bridge to Bintangor Junction.
KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) is asking why roads in Sarawak are generally of lower grades than those in Peninsular Malaysia.
In a statement released yesterday the party pointed out that the Pan Borneo Highway (PBH) is a List 2 road while highways in Peninsular Malaysia are all List 1 roads.
PSB said that the Weight Restriction Order (WRO) of a List 2 road allows a maximum load capacity of 38 tonnes and traffic is limited to six-axle heavy vehicles while List 1 highways like those in Peninsular Malaysia have a WRO of 53 tonnes and a capacity for seven-axle heavy vehicles.
“The ramification of the difference is far reaching and has a direct impact on the development of Sarawak,” the statement said.
PSB said it is grossly unfair to construct lower grade roads in Sarawak as the state had been a major contributor to the national economy.
“We are not getting what we deserve as the fund we contributed to the national coffer has been utilized for other states in Peninsular Malaysia while the federal government cut corners in implementing infrastructure projects (in Sarawak) to cut cost.”
The statement added that a factor that determined the grade of PBH could be the weight carrying capacity of the bridges joining the highway.
“If that is the case then why are we getting inferior bridges with low load carrying capacity? The planners should surely know this will determine the load carrying capacity of our roads.”
The statement added that it is disappointing that the Sarawak government had not bring up this unfair distribution of development fund more strongly with the federal government.
“Sarawakians cannot remain silent over this matter. The state has every right to demand its fair share of development fund based on the amount of fund it contributed to the national budget especially through its oil and gas resources.”
Stressing that the development of Sarawak has been held back all these years by poor road infrastructure and low load carrying capacity, the statement added that there were high hopes that PBH is a game changing catalyst for the state’s development.
“However, the carrying capacity of PBH as a List 2 highway will be an obstacle to the development of its transport industry which is vital to development.
“Transport operators in Sarawak have been complaining about the low load capacity for lorries in the state and in 2010 the United Sarawak Lorry Association appealed to the Transport ministry to increase the weight of their lorries from a maximum of 44 tonnes to 60 tonnes.
“In 2017 the Gross Laden Weight (GLW) of small lorries which are categorised as D-controlled commercial vehicles have their vehicle weight with load increased from five tonnes to 7.5 tonnes while commercial vehicles with tow, three, four, five and six axle weighing bewteen 18,000 kg and 44,000 kg but Sarawak and Sabah were excluded.”
The construction of the Pan Borneo Highway offered a ray of hope for transport operators but it turned out to be a false dawn.
If the rationale for constructing PBH as List 2 highway was to cut cost, PSB said it was pennywise pound foolish as it would result in transport companies making more trips and increasing the volume of traffic on the road, and wear and tear of the road surface.
“The lower lorry weight limit would also result in transporters incurring more cost which could be as high as 57 per cent more than higher weight limit of 60 tonnes.
“Sarawak is suffering from high cost overrun because of these weight limitations,” the statement lamented.