Five-year masterplan for Sepanggar
We cannot simply chase the squatters away without providing an alternative solution as among them are locals, so we have to make sure that everything can be planned well from the aspect of housing.
Ts Datuk Mustapha Sakmud
KOTA KINABALU: Sepanggar will soon have a five-year masterplan covering various facets of development, said its Member of Parliament Ts Datuk Mustapha Sakmud.
Mustapha, who is also Deputy Higher Education Minister, said the masterplan will be based on the outlined frameworks of the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) Masterplan 2023-2026 to prevent the two plans from clashing and to adopt some of its initiatives.
He said the masterplan will be scrutinised by the district’s parliamentary side utilising expertise from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Institute for Developmen Studies (IDS), and other relevant agencies in the state.
He said they will try to include all aspects of development not only in the aspect of physical but also human capital.
“We want this masterplan to include, in the next five to ten years, physical development but not at the expense of human capital development as it will cause a zero-sum development instead.
“And as we all know, Sepanggar is a hub for many things - logistics, industrial, skills education, etc. - so we also want to combine all these elements in the masterplan.
“We also know that Sepanggar has a squatters issue, so we have to further scrutinise this aspect to hopefully solve the issue in phases.
“We cannot simply chase the squatters away without providing an alternative solution as among them are locals, so we have to make sure that everything can be planned well from the aspect of housing,” he told reporters after a briefing on the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) Masterplan 2023 at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) here on Friday.
Mustapha said this masterplan is expected to be launched by the end of this year.
The deputy minister also said the drilling of six new tube wells at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is completed.
He said the building of reservoir tanks and filtration are 70 percent done.
At the same time, he said a contractor has been appointed to carry out pipe connections to the university hostels.
Mustapha said he will continue to survey the project to ensure it is completed by the March 26 deadline, especially in light of the coming Ramadhan month.
“We will ensure this project can be fully completed, meaning water can actually be channeled to the students for their use, and I will be constantly monitoring it,” he said.