Kuching (Jan 26, 2012): The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Communications is in the process of terminating a contract work of the contractor for the Biawak Road and Tebedu Road because of poor performance, the minister Michael Manyin said today.
Construction work commenced in 2009, and up to now, the roads were 40 per cent completed, he said when asked by reporters on complaints regarding the delay in the completion of the two roads.
The Biawak road was tendered out at a cost of RM29 million while the Tebedu road at a cost of RM9 million to the Sarawak-based company, under the RM1 billion special stimulus package.
Manyin, however, declined to reveal the name of the company when reporters suggested to him to make public the name of the company and its shareholders so that the people, especially those in Biawak and Tebedu, would know.
"It is the public dormain," he insisted when a reporter suggested that the contractor should be shamed so that in future, the company would not vie for government projects anymore.
Manyin said terminating the contract work of the contractor would not be easy as it had legal implications.
"Eventually, we have to find new contractor to complete the two roads," he said, but did not when the new contractor would be engaged.
On other matter, Manyin said it might be unfair to compare the state's trunk roads with the North South Highway and the rest of the toll roads in the peninsular.
"These roads are all privatized projects carried under the PFI (Privately Financed Initiatives) models. And for such road users, they have to pay a price in the form of tolls, which I believe many of us have experienced.
"However, those Federal trunk roads which are government funded are almost comparable with ours," he said.
With regards to the upgrading of the State trunk road to a four lanes carriageway from Sematan to Merapok (1,080 Km), he said at the current rate, the estimated cost was RM16 billion (approximately RM16 million/Km).
Presently, a total of 140 Km of the road have been upgraded to four lanes carriageway.
"In view of the high cost, the upgrading exercise would be carried out in phases. Proposals were put up on the priority list under the Ministry of Works Second Rolling Plan (2012-2013) under 10MP, to provide some stretches of the roads from Sibu/Bintulu/Miri and Serian/Sri Aman/Sarikei/Julau with overtaking lanes at 8 Km intervals. The estimated cost of these overtaking lanes is RM380 million for 95 numbers of overtaking lanes of 1 Km each.
"This is to reduce road accidents and to allow drivers, who are being held up by slow heavy vehicles, to overtake," he said, adding that the goal was the overtaking lanes to reduce accident.
He said with the implementation of these facilities would mean that road users were informed of the overtaking facilities provided ahead.
"Thus, road users do not have to take risks by overtaking at inappropriate locations. Since overtaking lanes are built in series, there are more chances for road users to overtake safely," he said.
Manyin also said that In conjunction with the United Nation ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 – 2020, the State government would continue to support the current road safety policy and agenda, in tandem with the Road Safety Council Malaysia, in an effort to ‘prevent and reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries’ due to road accidents.
"Due to the State’s rising population and economic activities, the emerging need for mobility had resulted in the increasing number of vehicles, road users and road networks.
"These, in the long run, will continue to affect the number of accident cases due to risk exposures because of human factor (contributing up to 65% of the cause), road condition and environment (27%) and also vehicle condition (8%).
"In an effort to ‘prevent and reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries’ due to road accidents, long term strategies such as the 5Es (Engineering, Enforcement, Education, Environment and Evaluation) will continue to be implemented.
He said among the 5Es strategies, the long term, consistent and lifelong implementation of Road Safety Education (RSE) is vital to ensure the success of any road safety policy and agenda. Such RSE programmes that had been implemented are:
(1) Formal teaching of RSE modules under the Bahasa Malaysia subjects for one period (30 minutes) every week at all primary schools in Sarawak since 2008;
(2) The introduction of co-curricular RSE activities in primary and secondary schools since 2008; and
(3) National Service’s RSE advocacies for all participants at eight (8) camps in Sarawak.
He said the indoctrination of the ‘road safety culture’ among Sarawakians’ current and younger generation would be expected to produce its result when these people become the road users or upon receiving their future driving licenses.
Manyin also said that with effect from Jan 1, 2009, rear seat belt wearing regulations had been enforced through the Rules of Motor Vehicles (Seat Belts) (Amendment 2008). It is enforced to all types of vehicles except for the following:
(a) Vehicles registered before Jan 1, 1995;
(b) Vehicles registered on or after Jan 1, 1995, but are not equipped with built-in anchor (rear anchorage points);
(c) Vehicles with more than eight seats excluding the driver; and
(d) Goods vehicles with gross weight (BDM) of more than 3.5 tonnes (3,500 kg).
For vehicles registered on or after Jan 1, 1995 and had built-in anchor but not installed with rear seat belts, vehicle owners were given three years to install these seat belts. The three years period ended on Dec 31, 2011.
Any driver or passenger not wearing seat belts (front or back) will be summoned amounting to RM300. Those who fail to pay the compound will be prosecuted in court where a fine not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both.
Manyin said a total number of deaths arising from road traffic accidents for Malaysia was 6,982 persons, which was equivalent to 24.93 deaths per 100,000 population or 3.4 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles.
The total number of deaths arising from road traffic accidents for Sarawak in 2010 was 378 deaths.
This is equivalent to 15.62 deaths per 100,000 population or 2.99 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles. By Sematong Express
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