Datuk Sebastian Ting on the Pan Borneo Highway

suppadmin | September 4, 2018

The Pan Borneo Highway is a longtime dream of Sarawkians and Sabahans since the formation of Malaysia. Other than connecting all its communities along the route via a well-built road system, it will trigger off many economic spin offs for Sarawak and Sabah, said Piasau state assemblyman, Datuk Sebastian Ting.

There was much joy and relief in Sarawak when the Sarawak leg of the project commenced in 2016 as this highway would also improve the safety for the road users and shorten the travelling time.

Therefore it is with much surprise that the Prime Minister mentioned there will be a delay in completion for the Sabah portion of the project. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there would investigate where the huge amount of funds had gone. Surely the payments for the completed packages of worked done were made in phases.

In Sarawak, our Phase 1 which encompasses 1,060KM is due for completion in 2021 at an estimated cost of RM16.488 billion. Currently about 193km have been completed with the rest under progress.

We hope there will be no excuses given to delay the work here in Sarawak as all work seems to be progressing well.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been in the Cabinet for more than 30 years with 22 years as Prime Minister. During this entire duration he had the opportunity to help Sarawak but nothing was done to start the Pan Borneo Highway.

The massive amounts of revenue from the the oil taken from Sarawak was instead used to improve all the infrastructure in Peninsular Malaysia including their Highway network. Sarawak and Sabah were left far behind.

Our Minister of Works, YB Baru Bian gave an assurance recently that the Pan Borneo Highway will proceed as planned and that work was progressing according to schedule. We pray and hope he will steer this project towards its planned completion.

We sincerely hope that the Pakatan Harapan government is seriously committed to the development of Sarawak. They have to behave in a responsible manner to Sarawakians and their wellbeing. It would be a great disappointment if excuses were given to delay the Pan Borneo Highway in Sarawak.