Pakatan Harapan mulls free public transportation for Miri City

MIRI: Pakatan Harapan (PH) is planning to provide free public transportation for Miri City as part of it strategy to ease the burden of lower income groups following the successful implementation of a similar system in Selangor and Penang.
DAP's Pujut assemblyman Dr Ting Tiong Choon said he and Miri MP Dr Michael Teo Yu Keng (PKR) would work together to ensure the proposal can be implemented in Miri City as it also can reduce traffic congestion in selected areas in the city.
"It is estimated to cost RM20 million including the cost of purchasing of 70 buses that would serve Miri City," he said in a news conference, here today.
Dr Ting said the free public transportation would be for all type of passengers including students in primary and secondary schools.
He said the free public transportation would not only provide services within Miri City but in the outskirts, as well as rural areas such as Baram and Batu Niah.
Asked about the timeframe for the system to be implemented, he said further details would be divulged once the proposal was scrutinised and finalised by the relevant authorities.
Beside free public transportation, he said PH would push for the expansion project for the Miri Hospital and health clinics to cater to demand for health services due to the growing population in Miri City.
Meanwhile, Sarawak PH secretary Alan Ling Sie Kiong has appealed to local councils in Sarawak to waive all the parking summons issued by the councils on May 10 and May 11.
"We urge the local councils in Kuching City, Sibu and Miri City to waive the summonses and motorists who have paid the summons be reimbursed," he said.
He said many of them were confused with the public holiday declaration by the Federal Goverment thinking that Sarawak would have followed suit but instead the state government announced that it would declare May 17 and 18 as public holidays. — Bernama