By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, March 14: The Ministry of Works (MOW) will only consider carrying out maintenance work on roads gazetted under the federal list.
Senior Minister of Works Dato Seri Fadillah Yusof stressed that the ministry’s jurisdiction relates to federal roads only.
“Therefore, applications to upgrade non-federal roads such as State roads, council roads or village roads are under the relevant authorities.
“The ministry will only consider the proposal to upgrade the road if it is gazetted to a federal road,” he said when presenting his ministerial winding-up speech in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He also mentioned that the procedure for project application to build new roads or upgrade existing federal roads is through the State government based on the State Priority List submitted to the MOW through coordination between the State Economic Planning Unit and the Public Works Department (JKR).
“The list of project proposals will go through a screening process at the ministry where it will be evaluated and scrutinised based on evaluation criteria, especially the ministry’s internal planning as outlined in Highway Network Development Plan (HNDP) 2030.
“For project proposals not in the HNDP, it can still be submitted for consideration of the federal agency if the project is prioritised by the State government and is accompanied by a strong justification of project application.
“Therefore, I urge all Members of Parliament (MPs) to bring the project proposal they wish to apply to the State government first so that the project can be considered in the State priority list submitted to this ministry,” he added.
Fadillah, who is also Petra Jaya MP, further said that the scope of federal road maintenance work is divided into routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and emergencies such as cleaning up fallen trees, landslides and putting up flood warning signs. ― DayakDaily
