Pan Borneo Highway to be toll free

No toll along the Sarawak route while Sabah route remains under negotiation with concessionaires.

KOTA SAMARAHAN: The government has agreed that no toll will be imposed along the Sarawak route of the Pan Borneo Highway, Works Minister Fadillah Yusof said here, yesterday.

He said, for the Sabah route, the matter had yet to be finalised as the government was negotiating with the concessionaires. On the construction of 22 more overtaking lanes along the Pan Borneo Highway, he said it would be implemented by incorporating the new method and the conventional method.

“The construction of the overtaking lanes will begin on March and is expected to be completed in December this year,” he told reporters at the opening of Batang Samarahan bridge by Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang.

He said the overall 95 overtaking lanes along the highway were planned to be built in Sarawak and the government would bear the cost for 45 of them, while the rest would be implemented through a merger between the government and private sectors.

He added that the construction of the Pan-Borneo Highway, which will start on March 30, was expected to be completed by 2022 with the estimated cost of RM14.5 billion, mostly financed by private parties.

Commenting on the collapse of the roof structure at the main entrance door of a building that was still under construction at the KK Times Square which killed one victim recently, he said investigations were
being done by the Human Resource Department together with the Health and Safety Department.

Meanwhile, on the proposed construction of an overhead pedestrian bridge at the entrance to the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) campus here, Fadilah said the project tender would be issued in February and the construction was expected to begin in March this year at a cost of RM3.5 million.

On another matter, Fadilah said research done by the Construction Industry Development Board found that the cost of some construction materials had risen by 10% due to the depreciation of the ringgit.

– BERNAMA