By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 13: A new Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) station, proposed to be built at the Batu Kitang Light Industrial Zone, is expected to be ready by March or April next year to serve the areas of Kota Sentosa, Batu Kitang and part of Batu Kawah.
Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen said the new station was approved by Malaysia Minister of Housing Local Government Nga Kor Ming in January 2023.
“It involves the purchasing of an industrial semi-detached building and conversion to a Bomba station. That way, it is faster and more cost effective.
“Nga approved the project there and then and the whole acquisition process has started,” he said in a statement today after viewing the identified building along with Bomba Sarawak acting director Tiong Ling Hii today.
Chong, who is also Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman, explained that Bomba Sarawak had sought a new station in 2021 but did not receive any response from the then Federal government.
After the change of government at the end of 2022, Bomba Sarawak took the initiative to quickly request for the project in January 2023 and it immediately got approval from Nga.
According to Tiong, after several rounds of negotiations, the developer of the light industrial building finally agreed to sell the semi-detached building to Bomba and signed the agreement in June this year.
Bomba has also within a short time prepared the architecture plan for the renovation work to be carried out. The tender for the renovation project will be called in one or two months’ time.
“If everything turns out smoothly, the whole project would take about 26 months from approval to operation. I believe it is reasonably fast.
“As I was informed by Tuan Tiong, there are still some minor administrative issues to be sorted out before the station can be operative. Such issue involves both the Sarawak and the Federal agencies. To that, I will give my assistance to expedite the resolution of such administrative problem,” Chong assured. — DayakDaily
