KUCHING, Sept 3: Using 7th Mile Basketball Court as Covid-19 testing centre will cause a traffic nightmare, says Chong Chieng Jen.
The Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman said the road leading to the 7th Mile Basketball Court is a one-lane road that cannot allow for vehicles waiting in line by the roadside.
“If the 7th Mile Basketball Court were to be converted to a Covid testing centre, the traffic jam around the 7th Mile Bazaar will be further aggravated,” he said in a statement yesterday (Sept 2).
Chong suggested, a better alternative for a Covid-19 testing centre in Kota Sentosa will be the Kuching International Airport (KIA) as it has a huge carpark and multi-lane roads to accommodate vehicles queueing for drive-through swab tests.
According to him, KIA is under-utilised at the moment given the reduced number of inbound and outbound flights.
“After making a complaint to SDMC on the choice of venue, I met up with the person in-charge and was told that the team has done all the preparatory work for the operation at the basketball court as a Covid-19 testing centre, it would be quite impossible to change the venue last minute.
“The authority also assured me that it will put more effort in traffic management of the place to see if it can be properly managed without much inconvenience to road users, and if the situation is still unmanageable, then SDMC will find an alternative place,” he added. – DayakDaily
