RANAU-KOTA MARUDU ROAD ANOTHER BN FAILURE?

THE KOTA Kinabalu Member of Parliament office received public complaint from Ranau District concerning the very bad road condition linking from Ranau (Poring – hot spring) onwards to Kota Marudu and Sugut.

There is a road upgrading project being put up for the totaling 110 KM road linking to these places. The project was started in 2008, but very unfortunately the road construction has come to a halt a year ago, and there was no activity.

The contractor had stopped work for reasons unknown, and has just resumed some bits of work with a few machines and trucks on site. The multi-million road project is classified as a total failure by the unhappy people in the area. This road is actually serving many kampongs with a population of not less than 10,000, and it is a federal trunk road.

The Sabah DAP team was led by the DAP Ranau leaders Paul Karangkas and the others to make a drive through on the “Highway” trying to make their way to Kota Maradu and to have a personal feel of the road in question.

The team was shocked to see that only about four kilometer of the so called new road had been sealed with bitumen surface. The rest of the old road is in a horrible stage where the vehicles find it difficult to travel on.

ABANDON.....The uncompleted road which was abandoned.

UNATTENDED..... Collapsed section of the new road which left unattended to.

The road constructed previously had become bad due to erosion and damaged by logging trucks plying on this road. There are many steep slopes with loose gravel road surface made it very difficult for the cars and trucks to climb on.

Many cars couldn’t climb these steep slopes and had to back down to try to speed up the steep slopes. There was a 4 x 4 vehicle skidded and got stuck in the road side bushes, and luckily there was no one hurt.

The group found much difficulty to drive on further, and they had decided to turn back to Ranau after only reaching the half way mark. KK MP Hiew said this is the worst road that he had ever driven before. He pitied those kampong folks who had to travel on this bad road frequently.

The maintenance cost to their vehicles must be very high and expensive. The loose gravel and the huge rock pieces on the road surface surely giving their vehicles a lot of damages. This road is filled with dust during the dry days and it will become mud during rainy days. The poor students who walk to school usually become yellowish on their hair and school uniform. They are wearing yellow shirts and shots.

The road has restarted work but the question is when will this road be finally completed? There are plenty of works here are to be carried out, and we see on site there is not much effort has been put in. May be the work on the road is restarted just for the sake of the general election to show the people here that the BN government is doing something for them in return for their votes.

Hiew urged the government to put in some care, sincerity and genuinely to help the poor folks here. They need good road to travel on, and to transport their agriculture produce to the towns. (DAP Media)