By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, May 15: Sarawak Land and Survey Department (JTS) needs RM194.45 million allocation from the Federal government to conduct land reclamation work prior to the commencement of the Trans Borneo Highway project in November 2024.
Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources and Urban Development II (MUDeNR) Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said the project will involve 73.8 kilometres worth of roads.
“The road construction involving a 73.8km stretch of road scheduled to start in November 2024 will be affected if the required amount of funds is not channeled to the Department,” he said when presenting his ministerial winding-up speech in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUS) sitting here today.
For the Second Trunk Road/Coastal Highway, he said the Sarawak government has allocated RM220 million for land reclamation work.
To date, JTS has completed the work on 215km road alignment with the remaining 40.6km road to be completed by the end of this year.
For Sarawak-Sabah Link Road (SSLR), he said the Sarawak government has allocated RM200 million for land reclamation work on Phase 1 involving 77km road and some part of Phase 2 involving 45km road.
The work on the remaining 275.5km road in Phase 2 would require an additional allocation of RM127 million.
On the other hand, JTS has resolved land reclamation work involving 6km road under Northern Coastal Highway (NCH) project by the end of 2023 and the remaining 82.7km road requires additional allocation of RM140 million.
At the same time, Awang Tengah informed that as of April 30, there are 1,248 projects that require land reclamation work after having been approved since 2018.
“A total of 519 projects have been allocated with funds amounting to RM1.008 billion. Of these, 130 Federal projects and 389 Sarawak projects have been allocated with funds of RM227.67 million and RM781.07 million respectively.
“JTS still needs funds amounting to RM1.535 billion to carry out land acquisition for 729 projects. The required funds are as much as RM448.67 million for 151 Federal projects and RM1.086 billion for 578 Sarawak projects.
“The government’s commitment to complete land reclamation work within six months is dependent on the channeling and availability of funds from the implementing agency. The delay in channeling the allocation to JTS will affect the implementation of the project and will certainly affect the six month period as has been set,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
