By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Aug 19: Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen has called on the Sarawak government to focus on the expansion of the current Kuching International Airport (KIA) instead of pushing for the construction of a new airport.
In a statement, the Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman said the State government should push for expanding the current KIA, which costs RM100 million and could serve Kuching for another 15 to 20 years, rather than building a new KIA, which is more expensive and could stall the expansion of the current airport.
Citing a written reply from the federal Ministry of Transport, which proposed the expansion of KIA under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), Chong said the reply stated that the ministry has proposed the upgrading of KIA from the present five million passengers per annum capacity to eight million.
With this proposed expansion plan, he said, it would increase the capacity of KIA by another 60 per cent.
“However, it was also mentioned in the written answer that final approval of the expansion plan will depend on firstly, the availability of funds and secondly, the direction of the State government, which is currently undertaking a feasibility study on the proposed new KIA,” he said.
Chong, who is also Padungan assemblyman, said that while the proposed allocation of RM100 million may not pose a big hurdle as such a sum is small compared to annual budgets of the federal government, it is the direction and intention of the State government which may be a main impediment to the expansion of the existing KIA.
“We know that Sarawak is rich. But there is still a limit to our wealth. We should not repeat the folly of the federal government under Tun Mahathir in the late 80s and 90s with its uninhibited spending on mega-projects, thus turning Malaysia into a debt-ridden country and making us, the future generations of the 80s and 90s, to pay for their extravagance.” — DayakDaily
