24 minutes
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has allocated an additional RM240 million to upgrade and repair federal roads, says Deputy Works Minister Mohd Anuar Mohd Tahir.
“The RM240 million was an additional allocation on top of the approved allocation of RM362 million by the Finance Ministry that was approved in Budget 2019 for repairs and upgrade of federal road this year.
“The total allocation provided by the Finance Ministry is RM782 million,“ he said in reply to a supplementary question from Mohd Shahar Abdullah (BN-Paya Besar) during Question Time.
Mohd Shahar had asked the Works Ministry whether the allocation for repairs and upgrading of federal roads was sufficient under the 2019 Budget.
Mohd Anuar said the ministry would receive the allocation in stages and expenses are focused on road repair work.
He said the ministry had appointed concession companies for the repair works while a Notice of Defect (NOD) will be forwarded to the Finance Ministry for extra allocation on bigger repair works.
Mohd Tahir said RM124.3 million (34.33%) of the allocation had been used to repair and upgrade 17,830.33Km of federal roads as of May this year.
He said the government has always prioritised road safety especially in ensuring the roads damaged with potholes are repaired immediately,.
“The appointed concessionaire companies were required to inspect federal roads at least twice a week. If there is any damages, the roads need to be repaired within 24 hours in line with the ministry’s zero pothole initiative which was introduced in February 2016,“ he said.
