MUST BE TWO BRIDGES, NOT ONE

By : DATUK SERI WILFRED MOJILIP BUMBURING

THE ANNOUCEMENT by the Chief Minister to build the Sport Complex in Tuaran and the RM16 million bridge connecting Tuaran Town and the villages around the Sungai Damit areas is timely and most welcome.

However, there are a few things that need to be clarified. There are supposed to be two proposed bridges to be build along the Tuaran River both costing about RM18 million.

One is the one announced by the CM connecting Sungai Damit areas with Tuaran Town and the other across the Kiulu River which would have connected Kiulu with Pekan Nabalu providing easy access to the people living around the Pekan Nabalu areas to reach Tuaran via Kiulu besides providing an alternative route from Tuaran to Ranau.

I personally handed over to the Prime Minister these two proposed bridges when we were asked in 2011 by the PM himself for every BN MP to submit to him two application for major projects in every parliamentary constituency.

JKR Sabah have done their preliminary study on these two proposed projects and based on the assurance by the PM, the Federal Government would undertake to implement these projects.

However, there were no news coming from the PM or any relevant authority with regards to the said projects. With the announcement by the CM, is State Government taking responsibility by providing funds to undertake the implementation of the Sungai Damit bridge, and also what happened to the other Kiulu Bridge which were submitted at the same time?

On another note, the Topokon-Gontung road is also in need of being upgraded. I have personally brought Datuk Shafie Apdal on a drive along the Gontung road for him to personally see the condition of the road and the number of people that would have benefitted should the Federal Government taken a proactive approached when I first requested that this stretch of road must be given priority.

Until today, even with the announcement by the CM, I still considered these as promises unfulfilled.

With regards to the sport Complex; this would have been completed a long time ago. The Tamparuli Sports Complex project was approved when I was still the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, a contractor have been appointed and RM1 million have already been spent but the projects was stopped soon after I left the Ministry. We want to the status of the contractor that was appointed and carried out the initial work.

Along these lines, we call upon the Government to implement these two projects with transparency; not negotiated or direct .