Uncertainty looms over Btg Lupar Bridge project
KOTA SAMARAHAN: The proposed Batang Lupar Bridge project is facing uncertainty as there has been no indication whether the Pakatan Harapan ( PH) federal government would continue to fund it on a 50- 50 basis with the Sarawak government.
Assistant Minister of Coastal Road Datuk Julaihi Narawi said he is hopeful the plans made for the 5km bridge before the 14th General Election ( GE14) would continue.
“For the benefit of Sarawakians, I hope that the federal government will continue to agree in sharing the cost to construct the bridge. Sarawakians need the bridge as it is the most strategic bridge located along the Sarawak coastal road,” he told reporters after opening the Batang Samarahan Bridge to motorists yesterday.
The previous Barisan Nasional ( BN) federal administration had agreed to a 50 per cent allocation for the RM1 billion project.
Julaihi opined that the Batang Lupar Bridge would be a catalyst for more development for rural areas, in line with the Sarawak government’s aspiration to bring rural and coastal areas into the mainstream of development.
Last year, then Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof had said the tender for the bridge, which would have been the longest in Sarawak, would be issued this year.
On the RM110 million Batang Samarahan Bridge, which the Public Works Department has issued with a safety certificate, Julaihi said it was completed ahead of schedule.
“I believe the bridge will also improve the socio- economy of the people living in the rural and coastal areas near this bridge apart from making it easier to travel the areas connected by this bridge,” he said.
The 790-metre bridge will make it easier for motorists to travel between Asajaya and Kuching, making queues for the ferry a thing of the past.
Construction on the bridge began in January 2015.