Make Pan Borneo Highway on par with Peninsular — DAP
KOTA KINABALU: DAP Sabah secretary Chan Foong Hin yesterday urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to make the Pan Borneo Highway which is still in its early construction stage, at least on par with the highway in Peninsular, instead of promising that the highway will be on par with those in developed nations when completed.
The Sri Tanjong Assemblyman rebutted Najib’s announcement that the “Pan Borneo Highway is a world class highway”, when he launched the project in Sindumin during his visit to Sabah on Saturday.
“Sabah road is not even on par with Peninsular standard, why should we talk about world class standard?” Chan said.
According to him, the Sabah road quality is sub standard compared with those in Peninsular. For example, the gross vehicle weight (BDM) allowed in Sabah is very different from the Peninsula. The maximum BDM allowed in Peninsular is 53,000 kilograms and whereas for Sabah it is restricted to 38,000 kilograms, irrespective of the number of axle configurations.
“Why is the BDM different between Sabah and Peninsular? Simply due to the carrying capacity of the bridges and roads here are lower than Peninsular, which indicates the road and bridge quality here is not as good as there.”
He said the sub-standard road quality in Sabah creates disadvantages in terms of lesser payload, higher unit cost, higher operating cost and other aspects.
In a nutshell, it’s not enough for Sabah just to get a toll-free Pan Borneo Highway at an overall cost RM16 billion in next five years. Instead, what is really needed is a comprehensive package to upgrade all the existing 62 bridges of the federal roads in Sabah, 1,501km federal roads and 10,747km state roads.
“It’s the obligation of the Federal government to develop Sabah, please don’t capitalise the Pan Borneo Highway ground-breaking ceremony to fish for votes in Sabah. We deserve to enjoy the highway with good quality on par with Peninsular as Sabah is the equal partner to form Malaysia,” Chan said.