Julaihi (right) together with Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah and Assistant Minister of Women, Family and Childhood Development, Rosey Yunus.
THE government has no plan to construct a flyover or underpass from Jalan Stutong, Mile 7 towards the new airport road bypassing the traffic lights at Kuching Sentral.
Assistant Minister of Coastal Road Datuk Julaihi Narawi said however, a project approved vide a letter dated Jan 11, 2018 to alleviate traffic jam on the east side of Kuching International Airport (KIA) namely “Pembinaan Jalan Akses ke Kawasan Selatan ke Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuching, Sarawak”(Construction of Access Road to the Southern Side of KIA) under the Ministry of Works (KKR).
He pointed out that the Sarawak government, in realising the importance of this project, has taken the initiative to solve or alleviate the traffic congestion at the area based on the outcome of Kuching Urban Traffic Study which was done in August 2012.
“Since the outcome of the traffic study by the Sarawak government justified the project to be implemented, we are very confident that the federal government especially KKR will fund the project to its full completion.
“We hope that KKR realises the importance of this project since it is approved under the federal government,” he said in response to a question by Lo Khere Chiang (GPS-Batu Kitang) at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Sitting today.
On what is the latest status of this project, Julaihi said a value assessment or VA lab is being planned to be conducted by KKR to determine the scope and finalise the project cost for implementation.
“We have yet to get the actual date on when they will do the VA but I think that indicates that they are willing to come in to assist us to solve the problem in the area.”
He noted that the project is expected to be tendered in the middle of 2020 after the completion of VA and value engineering lab.
“It will become a reality when all these VA and value engineering lab is fully conducted,” he remarked.