Sarawak have only 34% rural road coverage

Posted by Uchu Keling on 12th June 2008 in News Extract

That’s our new flyover (started to be a little bumpy now).

This road leading to Rh. Gerang, Seputih, Suai may not be in the list since its outside the 30km radius.

Writer: Where can we track this progress?

Basic amenities for rural folk in Sabah, Sarawak
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
Source: The Star Online

KOTA KINABALU: A fresh concept is being adopted to meet the basic amenities of rural people in Sabah and Sarawak in eight years.

Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib said his ministry would concentrate on developing all areas within 30km radius of the main urban centres or towns in rural districts of the two states under the concept.

“We will ensure that there are roads as well as electricity and water within the 30km radius of each urban centre of the district,” he told reporters Thursday after a closed-door briefing between his ministry and state assemblymen and MPs.

He said under the concept all areas would be developed through a fair and equitable manner in which areas within a 25km radius around urban centres would have the basic amenities.

He said in the peninsula, water supply in rural areas was 97% compared to Sabah (63%) and Sarawak (62%). As for electricity, the peninsula achieved 99% while Sabah had 76.2% coverage and Sarawak had 84.08%. As for roads in rural areas, the peninsula had achieved 95% coverage with Sabah and Sarawak lagged at 40% and 34% respectively.

He said it was hoped that through the new concept all areas would get equitable and fair development by 2016 with his ministry concentrating on monitoring the development via physical checking.

“We will give colour codes to various areas where road, water and electricity have been implemented and when we look at it from our computers, we will know which areas are lagging,” he said, urging elected representatives to help resolve land problems in the implementation of the projects.

He said the Prime Minister had granted Sabah and Sarawak an additional RM1bil each for rural development projects and this would go towards their objective of speeding up basic infrastructure development in the two states apart from the RM11.03bil allocated to rural development in the country under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

The other development projects were for tackling hardcore poverty, spurring rural economic growth and projects for social amenities, said Muhammad who was in the state for a three-day visit including an overnight stay at Kg Pinangah in Kinabatangan to see for himself the condition of Sabah’s rural people.