More affordable housing needed to match Batu Kawa’s progress — Dr Sim
KUCHING: Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian expressed his hope that more affordable housing will be built in Batu Kawa due to the rapid growth in the area.
He said as Batu Kawa has become one of the three major residential growth areas here besides Matang and Samarahan, which are enjoying tremendous development, the demand for housing has skyrocketed.
He said more affordable housing like those under the state’s Spektra Permata housing programme would be built in Batu Kawa so that the current residents of similar housing schemes could live near their children.
“This is also to ensure that the grandparents and the grandchildren can be closer to each other especially when both parents are working,” he said at the earth-breaking ceremony for a sports or community hall with an innovative hub in Batu Kawa here yesterday.
On the new project, the Batu Kawah assemblyman said the hall could accommodate up to 1,000 people and was scheduled for completion in 15 months.
He said aside from being a venue for sports and social events, the hall would also be a hub for young aspiring entrepreneurs.
Dr Sim also said the tender value for the hall was RM9.8 million but unfortunately, the budget allocation did not take into consideration land acquisition cost, the access road and increase in cost, amounting to RM5 million.
Upon the request of Dr Sim, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had approved RM5 million to cover the additional costs.
Meanwhile, Abang Johari, who officiated at the earth-breaking, said the project was innovative in that it would transform a former quarry.
“Actually this project is something visionary, a creative project where you turn an abandoned area into a new area, a recreational ground for the use of people in Batu Kawa.
“This abandoned Ang Cheng Ho quarry has a history, having produced gravel for us to implement road and other projects since the colonial era,” he said.
He said the area will see a change in the the landscape from an abandoned area to an innovative recreation park, without affecting the ecosystem.
“Batu Kawa will have a modern economic consolidation strategy equipped with Sports/Community Hall With Innovative Hub with various leisure activities such as water skiing, glass bridge as well as high jump, kayaking, jet skiing, ‘fly-boarding’, ‘flying fox’ and much more,” he added.
The chief minister also said that the state government will support the development shi in the area to increase mobility access, and plans to develop Light Rail Transit (LRT) routes, build new roads to connect districts in the vicinity, as well as reduce traffic congestion and open opportunities for housing developers to develop affordable housing.
He said such transformation would be more actively developed in Sarawak to enable stability and economic progress to be stronger in the future.