Give incentives to build multi-storey car parks
KOTA KINABALU: The government can encourage the private sector to build multistorey car parks in the city with tax incentives or rebates.
Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( KKCCCI) president Datuk Michael Lui said the shortage of parking lots in Kota Kinabalu central business district (CBD) must be solved at the same time as the implementation of the one-way traffic system.
Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir had previously said it was impossible to build a multi-storey car park in the city centre because there was no available land, he said.
But perhaps the private sector could come in to erect multistorey car parks if the government provided tax incentives and ensured the process of getting development approval was more streamlined, Lui suggested.
Lui said this when asked to comment on the one-way traffic system here yesterday.
Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir said City Hall was in the midst of i mplementing the one-way traffic system in some parts of the city under the Kota Kinabalu CBD Traffic Management Plan in order to improve traffic flow and the public transportation system in the city.
Abidin said the project involved the restructuring of all road reserves along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, starting f rom the roundabout at Wawasan Plaza until Wisma Merdeka at Jalan Tun Razak.
The one-way traffic would also connect roads at Api-Api Centre, Kampung Air and Sinsuran Complex, Abidin said, adding that the new traffic system would provide a special lane for public transport and conducive linked pedestrian walkways throughout the city.
Lui agreed with the implementation of a one-way traffic system in the city but he emphasized that good planning was essential.
He said City Hall must seek expert views prior to carrying out the new traffic system.
“There might be some confusion once the one-way traffic system is in place, but it is necessary.”
On the other hand, Lui also voiced out the establishment of a monorail system in Kota Kinabalu to ease traffic congestion.
However, he said the current population in Kota Kinabalu, which he estimated at around one million within a 10-kilometre radius, was considered unfeasible to run a monorail system.
If the monorail system was in place, Lui said people coming from the north, south, east and west directions could park their vehicles at designated locations and travel to work at the CBD via monorail trains rather than driving to work everyday.
He added that the monorail system was a plan that the government must embark upon.