Upgrade Pan Borneo Highway: Chiew

Upgrade Pan Borneo Highway: Chiew
By Yunus Yussup (The Borneo Post)

BINTULU: The government should reconsider upgrading the Pan Borneo Highway to dual carriageway like the highways in Peninsular Malaysia.

Kidurong assemblyman Chiew Chiu Sing in making the call said the safety of all road-users should be the government’s priority.

“The request is not too much to ask because it is the people themselves who will benefit. Compared to the highways in Peninsular Malaysia which are first-rate, the Pan Borneo Highway is just like ‘kampung road’.

“It is not worthy of a highway by the state of things,” Chiew said at a press conference here yesterday, adding that the bad road condition here would prejudice the people into thinking that the federal government was neglecting the development in the state.

He however did not deny that the authority did maintain the road from time to time.

The Pan Borneo Highway, he acknowledged had undergone repair, resurfacing, and rehabilitation, but there was nothing to stop it from being damaged again.

“The condition of some sections of the highway is really bad, with potholes the norm while other sections have not been repaired at all. Driving along the highway is indeed an experience,” Chiew lamented.

He suggested that the government widen the highway first by turning it into a dual-carriageway, complete with lanes for overtaking.

Good land transportation system was very much needed in Sarawak as the towns were far apart and the land size as big a Peninsular Malaysia, he said, adding that road was the cheapest means of moving around in the state.