Samling has agreed to undertake maintenance work on the 80km Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road, says Masing

KUCHING, July 11, 2017: Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said that Samling Group of Companies has agreed to do maintenance work on a potholes-filled 80km Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road into a gravel road at a cost of RM36 million.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing showing the stretch of Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road that will be maintained by Samling Group of Companies at cost of RM36 million.

He said its senior officials came to see him today to  discuss the company's proposal to maintain the road into R1 class (gravel road).

Masing, who is also the Infrastructure Development and Transportation Minister, said he will seek  funding for the maintenance of the road once he has officially received an official letter from Samling.

"It is hoped that the maintenance work could start before the end of this year," he told reporters.

He, however, is unsure when the maintenance work will be completed.

He said the Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan used to be a logging track built by Samling to transports logs from its timber concession in the area.

The company, he said, then abandoned the logging track when it no longer harvested timber from the area.

Masing said then the Malaysian Army upgraded the logging  track into a dirt road under its Jiwa Murni programme, but meant for four-wheel drive vehicles to pass through.

"After the army had finished with their job, the road was then left without any maintenance and that is why you see plenty of potholes along the stretch of the road," he said, blaming trucks laden with logs as the cause of damage to the Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road.

 A map showing the stretch of the 150km Lawas-Ba'Kelalan road (right)

He said Samling has assured him that once it has completed doing maintenance work, it will not use the road to ferry logs.

However, the 70km Lawas-Luping gravelled road is in good shape since it is being maintained by Samling.

The  company is still using this stretch to ferry logs.

Masing said once the Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road has been covered with gravels, the journey from Lawas to Ba'kelalan will take about three hours, instead of eight hours at present.

He said the Lawas-Long Luping-Ba'Kelalan road serves about 20 Orang Ulu settlements.

"It is not true that we will not build rural roads as claimed by the opposition parties, but the people have to be patient for the rural roads to reach them," he said,  funding is a constraint in the efforts to build more rural roads.