Land compensation delaying Pan Borneo Highway in Sabah
KUCHING: The Pan Borneo Highway project in Sabah is delayed because huge amount of money have to be used for land compensation.
“Sabah is well behind because of the land compensation issue,” said former works minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
Fadillah, who is PBB senior vice president, said this when asked to comment on Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad’s recent statement, questioning the delay in the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway in Sabah, and asking where the funds have gone to.
Fadillah said all payment processes were carried out at the Sabah government-level by the Ministry of Finance, while his (work) ministry was only overseeing the technical aspect then.
“All the processes were done at (Sabah) state level. There is no overpayment because MoF controls the payment process, (and) not the works ministry. My ministry, through independent checker engineer, only verified the technical aspect and progress,” he said.
When asked to comment on the prime minister’s plan to look into ways for the highway to avoid crossing into Brunei so as to do away with the immigration process, and to smoothen movements between Sabah and Sarawak, Fadillah said he made similar proposal before, but was turned down.
“The challenge is to construct the road along the proposed new alignment. I did propose the same alignment but was turned down. Part of the reasons given were viability and affordability of the government.”
When asked what led to the refusal - was it cost or the road gradient too steep?
Fadillah said, “Yes, those were some of the reasons.”