KOTA KINABALU – The ongoing Pan Borneo highway project will not award any more new jobs to contractors until all utility and pending payments as well as land matters are resolved.
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said unlike in Peninsular Malaysia, contracts in Sabah are awarded first, then followed up with other business-related matters such as land issues, utilities, and ground work.
“This resulted in the slow progress of the Pan Borneo Highway project,” he said.
Bung said he wants to emulate Peninsular Malaysia, where states resolve these problems before awarding the contract, paving the way for contractors to proceed with the job.
On the overall Pan Borneo Highway packages, Bung said the performance of the 11 phase-one packages has been very slow.
“For the other 35 packages, 20% have been completed while another 40% of the projects are ongoing and this (delay) is the result of this problem,” he said during the state assembly question-and-answer session here today.
“We will no longer practise this. From now on, we will only award new packages once all issues are resolved,” said Bung, adding that Gabungan Rakyat Sabah has vowed that it will complete the whole project.
He said the completion of all three highway packages will be on a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), and several Malaysian investors will come to Sabah in January to propose their PFI ventures to the state government.
The Pan Borneo Highway will be constructed in three phases. The first phase covers the construction of 706km of highway, involving 35 packages as well as three additional packages.
“The cost of phase one is RM15.27 billion. Phase two involves the construction of a 98km road linking Tamparuli to Ranau, valued at RM10 billion, while the next phase involves the construction of a 432km road from Tawau to Kimanis at a cost of RM15 billion,” said Bung. – The Vibes, December 21, 2020
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