KUCHING, Jan 13: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen is requesting a more in-depth briefing on the Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) project from Sarawak Metro.
He said his office has written to Sarawak Metro headquarters at Arive Gateway here for the Sarawak DAP reps to better understand the project.
“We hope to hear from them soon as we all want to play our part for a better Sarawak and to ensure our people benefit directly from all these developments,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Chong said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii, Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong and himself visited the Sarawak Metro booth at Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak (Centexs) to know more about the ART construction plans.
He said the project, which is a proposed two-line hybrid metro forming part of the Kuching Urban Transformation System (KUTS), is being development by the government-owned Sarawak Metro.
He went on to say that Phase 1 of the ART project consists of two lines and 27 stations covering approximately 52km in distance.
“It is important for us to better understand the full construction masterplan, traffic management plan during construction, estimated ridership, and of course economic feasibility of the whole project itself.
“We are supportive of development projects in the State, but with every development, there must be greater accountability and transparency especially when it involves public funds.
“This, of course, includes supporting needed upgrades to our existing public transport system, but it must be feasible and pragmatic to the people, and will not put an excessive financial burden on our future generation,” said Chong. — DayakDaily
