Sandakan folk hope unused RM34 mil bus terminal gets up and running soon

SANDAKAN – The Sandakan Integrated Bus Terminal building, with its vibrant orange, purple and yellow façade, stands handsome at Mile 3 here.

Too bad that it has been practically useless since its completion in 2017.

Back then, it was a highly anticipated facility by Sandakan folk; but now, it is merely used as a car park by people visiting the Pasar Muhibbah next door.

The project cost about RM34 million, with funds coming from both the federal and state governments.

Sandakan’s common folk, especially those who cannot afford flights or without their own mode of transport, are in need of its facilities as the express bus is the only mode of transport to get to Kota Kinabalu, or further east to Tawau, Semporna and Lahad Datu.

Currently, express bus companies park their buses in odd places along the sides of a narrow road near Bandar Letat here. There is also no proper waiting area for passengers.

This arrangement was supposed to be temporary.

A small area has been used as a temporary site to park express buses in Bandar Letat since 2017, when the government announced that a new terminal was going to be ready.

This was when the physical structure of the Sandakan Integrated Bus Terminal was completed.

In January 2018, then Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman had visited the terminal, and announced that it would start operating soon after the installation of a terminal operating system was done.

However, it remained closed until May that year, when the state government changed hands and the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan coalition took over.

Shortly after, DAP elected representatives, including Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong, revealed some shocking news – the building was not safe to be utilised, and there were too many problems with its installation.

In August 2018, then Sandakan MP, the late Datuk Stephen Wong, said the contractors would need three months to fix the building and problems, and the terminal would be opened in 2019.

In April 2019, then assistant local government and housing minister George Hiew said the long-awaited terminal was near completion, pending fixing of minor technical problems.

But, after all these promises that the building would be opened soon, it did not happen. People have stopped putting their hopes on the project, and stopped questioning its status.

This is even more so since Gabungan Rakyat Sabah became the state government in September last year, while all elected reps under the Sandakan parliamentary constituency are from the opposition, DAP.

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, who is also state works minister, was slated to visit the terminal recently, and many thought that he was going to announce an allocation to fix the building.

However, when he did visit on June 26, he, too, said that it is not safe to be utilised, and that he will wait for the Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC) to submit a full report on it by mid-July.

There is soil deposition involving some 160m of land around the area, he claimed.

Can the terminal be fixed?

Chong said he is aware of the soil deposition issue in 2019, and blamed the contractor in charge of the construction.

Currently, the soil deposition has gone to about 0.45m-deep, he added.

Luckily, it takes place at the terminal’s loading bay, and not on the land where the main structure is built.

However, Chong said this could have been entirely avoided if the contractor in charge had done a proper job.

“As an engineer myself, I know where it went wrong.

“The construction process was a disaster; they did it wrongly. This could have been avoided if the work was monitored and supervised by a consultant, and SMC did not hire one at the time.

“I received an intensive report from a consultant in 2019, telling us the solution, and it stated that the loading bay land needs RM3 million to be fixed.

“We got the allocation from the PH (federal) government at the time, but (then) Perikatan Nasional took over, and it is (a) ‘gone case’ until today.”

If Chong’s report from his consultant is accurate, RM3 million is needed for the terminal to be good for use.

Now that Bung Moktar is waiting for an SMC report on the public transport structure, the people of Sandakan will wait and see if an allocation will be announced to have the terminal, which has been standing useless since 2017, up and running. – The Vibes, July 12, 2021