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KUCHING, Sept 15: The ongoing construction of Boulevard Shopping Mall in Bintulu has had a large bottleneck in the current drainage design which caused the flow from Kampung Assyakirin to be slowed down.
Bintulu MP Dato Seri Tiong King Sing said he had visited the project site earlier this afternoon after receiving a high number of complaints from the public.
“And true enough, I have seen the flaws of the current design of the project for myself.
“There is a large bottleneck in the current drainage design, where the flow from Kampung Assyakirin is slowed down significantly and not able to be discharged efficiently to the sea.
“It is not hard to imagine the kind of flooding that will hit the area if there is a surge in rain,” he said in a social media post today.
Tiong who is also Malaysian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, then immediately held a meeting with the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA), Bintulu Drainage and Irrigation Department, the developer, and other relevant agencies on the same day and reiterated the urgent need to correct the design of the drainage channel.
During the meeting, he had requested the authorities involved in completing the drawings to modify and upgrade the drainage behind Boulevard Shopping Mall before Sept 20 and immediately begin the project promptly.
The current design of the drainage, he said, must be corrected and completed before Nov 30 to avoid substandard drainage that cannot withstand the expected year-end flash floods.
“I also stressed again that the entire flood mitigation upgrading project must be completed before next April.
“Right now, 80 per cent of the project has been completed, but there is an urgent need to complete the remaining 20 per cent by next April.
“If the project can be completed earlier, it will indeed be good news for the people,” he added. — DayakDaily
