WAWASAN BUS TERMINAL, LAND GONE?

NOTICE…. Sign board of upgrading work.

By : DAP MEDIA

KOTA KINABALU Member of Parliament, Hiew King Cheu received public tip-off and information concerning the piece of land used by the Wawasan Bus Terminal here now in Kota Kinabalu City.

The source said that this is a piece of land under dispute at the moment on its legal standing and its eligibility to be used by the City Hall as a bus terminal. It also revealed that the eventual land area used by the bus terminal will be very small, and it is only used for the pick-up and drop-off of passengers only.

The source also said the 8 acres of land used as the bus terminal is already ear-marked for a joint-venture commercial development projects with the government, and the source refused to disclose further on this arrangement.

Hiew recently had asked the Minister in the Prime Minister Department Dato’ Seri Mohd. Nazri in Parliament concerning the RM 5 million fund allocation to upgrade the facilities for the Wawasan Bus Terminal, and he received his answer that the work will start very soon, and later DBKK also confirmed that the work will start in three months time when the allocation is received.

The said work involved constructing a pedestrian overhead foot bridge connecting up from the Wawasan shopping Plaza to the bus terminal. There will be some covered walk ways for the pedestrian and sealed pavement for the buses.

The question is, after all the arrangement on fund allocation, construction and the agony of the commuters waiting for a proper bus terminal to be built in the KK city, and now someone can come in and say this is my land, you cannot touch. What is the logic behind all these?

FENCE…..View of the KK Wawasan Bus Terminal (Red fence area is the little portion of land use as future pick-up and drop-off point).

Hiew wants the DBKK to give a detailed explanation and the true picture on the actual situation and standing of the land used by DBKK for the Wawasan Bus Terminal. He said the DBKK should give details on any past and present arrangement on this piece of land including any signed Joint-venture agreement with other companies, if there is any.

This is of important public interest, and if this source of information given is genuine, it should not be kept under covered anymore. We do not want to see such large sum of tax-payers’ money being spent to upgrade an urgently needed bus terminal and later being taken down due to some other court decision and arrangement.

It is a fact that the KK bus terminal had been shifted from place to place during the past years. Why can’t there be a proper permanent place for the setting up of the bus terminal in the KK city? The previous location of the KK bus terminal had been moved from the High Court to the back of Bank Negara, and then later on moved to Warisan Plaza, last location is in Wawasan.

Don’t forget there are many thousands of commuters using and travel by bus to get in and out of the city daily. This must be given top priority to cater for the needs of the people. Therefore, DBKK must do something to solve the problem and give clarification on the land status of the Wawasan bus terminal, whether there will be a proposed building development project there.

We demand the Wawasan bus terminal should not be moved. In fact there should be permanent structure to be erected to cater for a modern bus terminal.

- Sabahkini