KOTA KINABALU – The absence of a leading agency to plan and manage Sabah’s public transportation system is the reason why the state still does not have proper services in that regard, said Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin.
The DAP lawmaker said the issue is further compounded by Sabah getting nothing from the RM48 million allocation under the Stage Bus Scheme Transformation (SBST), adding that the funding had instead gone to Johor.
“The public transportation system in Kota Kinabalu is in need of dire improvement; not only is the service dissatisfactory, they also do not have a time schedule as the drivers also do not follow any schedule properly.
“Looking at Budget 2022, the SBST programme funding had been eliminated from RM48 million in 2021 to zero in 2022.
“The deputy transport minister in a special room briefing on October 27 said planning on the implementation of SBST is now being restructured and priority is given to the SBST implementation in Johor first this year,” he said, adding that expansion of SBST to other cities, including Kota Kinabalu, will be reviewed next year.
Chan said there had been no progress on the Public Transport Master Plan and Traffic Improvement and Urban Transport Master Plan announced by Kota Kinabalu City Hall in 2016.
The same, he noted, can be said about the development of the Bus Rapid Transit – announced by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak – which was scheduled to complete in 2022 and also never took off.
“Furthermore, the Kota Kinabalu Sentral building is also underutilised,” he said.
Chan said the Sabah government announced that the trial run for the electric bus would be held in December and had unveiled the skytrain project in the city following an MoU signed on November 29.
“I believe Kota Kinabalu folk have experienced all of this (before) and believe these two projects will never materialise.
“Will the same thing happen to the skytrain and electric bus plan? What really is Kota Kinabalu’s public transportation plan?” he asked, warning that the two plans would also fail if there is no agency leading the planning and management of the state’s public transportation system. – The Vibes, December 1, 2021
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