Phase 2 of project to start by year-end
PETRA JAYA: The second phase of the Pan-Borneo Highway project in Sarawak is expected to kick off by year-end.
Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said construction plans for the final phase of the project in the Limbang and Lawas divisions would be finalised by October.
The ministry, said the Petra Jaya member of parliament, had submitted the proposed routes involved in the second phase of the project to the government’s supreme technical committee.
“We hope the committee could give its approval the soonest, or at least by October, for the ministry to initiate the next course of action,” he said at a Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house at the Petra Jaya MP service centre here yesterday.
After obtaining the approval, Fadillah said, the ministry would hand the construction plan to the appointed Project Delivery Partner (PDP) for the highway in Sarawak, which is Lebuhraya Borneo Utara Sdn Bhd (LBU).
“The PDP will appoint contractors. God willing, we hope everything will be finalised and that the second phase of the project could begin by the end of this year,” he said.
According to LBU’s website at www.panborneo.com.my, the second phase of the highway will involve the construction and upgrading of roads along a 95km stretch in Limbang and Lawas.
Work will likely begin after the Tedungan Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex at the Sarawak-Brunei border in Limbang, and end at the Merapok/Sindumin.
Apart from the CIQ in Tedungan, the routes proposed under the second phase of the project will pass two similar complexes on the Sarawak-Brunei border in Pandaruan, Limbang, and Mengkalap, Lawas.
Costing RM16 billion, Fadillah said the first phase of the project, involving the stretch from Telok Melano to Pujut link road in Miri, was progressing accordingly.
The first phase is expected to complete by 2021.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had, when launching the project two years ago, expressed his wish that the initiative would become his legacy for the people in Sarawak.