by Philip Kiew. Posted on November 23, 2011, Wednesday
WELCOME: Najib greets the Kelabit and Lun Bawang community chiefs led by Sum (left) as they arrive at his official residence. – Photo by Jeffery Mostapa
Army builds 75km Long Luping-Ba Kelalan road for only RM52 million
PUTRAJAYA: The Long Luping-Ba Kelalan Road in Lawas has been hailed a new-breed project that reflects the perfect cooperation between the Public Works Department and the Armed Forces.
Built under the military’s ‘Jiwa Murni’ project, the 75km road costs only RM52 million, slashing 75 per cent from the estimated RM250 million if implemented by conventional contract.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the project was a new development concept which had never been carried out before.
“What attracts me and the government most is that the project, under the old thinking, would need to wait for quite some time as the allocation needed was substantial but it could be completed very quickly after we had taken the decision,” he said when receiving an entourage of Kelabit and Lun Bawang community leaders at Seri Perdana, Putrajaya yesterday.
The 41-member delegation led by Lawas MP Datuk Henry Sum Agong was there to thank the prime minister and the government for the road which was completed in September this year.
With the completion of the road, they said travelling time from Lawas to Ba Kelalan now only took about three hours compared to up to three days in the past.
Barely eight days after becoming prime minister, Najib sent his political secretary Datuk Shahlan Ismail to Ba Kelalan to assess the people’s needs and make recommendations.
“He came back with gruesome pictures of the road condition, and it would take a long time to resolve with the conventional concept, and that is why we decided that a new concept was needed,” Najib said.
Earlier, Sum in his speech thanked Najib for the road which the people had long been waiting for.
He also urged the prime minister to consider their request for funds for the new Lawas Airport, Bario-Ba Kelalan road, a secondary school in Ba Kelalan highlands, replacement of Pengalih bridge built under the Colombo Plan along the Pan Borneo trunk road, approval of a diploma-level technical institute in Lawas and minor projects such as village roads, bridges and jetties.
On behalf of the people, he also expressed their gratitude and appreciation to Minister of Defence Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and officers from his ministry, Armed Forces, Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU), Sarawak Development Office and all those involved in the construction of the road.
Also present at the function were Zahid and top officials from the Armed Forces and its engineering corps, and Sarawak Development Office director Datuk Kamal Hussein.
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