Government Approves Additional Provisions to Improve Accident Prone Roads

KUANTAN, February 14 - The government has increased the allocation of RM35 million to the Ministry of Works (MoW) for the repair of risky and accident prone routes on federal roads across the country. Works Minister, YB. Dato' Seri Shaziman Abu Mansor said the provision of a total of RM60 million will be allocated for the maintenance of 114 new accident prone areas in the Peninsula, Sabah and this allocation, he said, was approved by the Prime Minister, YAB. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after he witnessed the positive impact of the decreased levels of misfortunes in some ‘black’ or ‘black spot’ areas which has been maintained by the ministry before this.

"Prior to this, we already received an allocation of RM25 million to implement the related works, and this additional provision was announced by the Prime Minister last Thursday. It was approved after he was satisfied with the data that was released by Ministry from the information provided by Royal Malaysian Police showing a decrease of accidents at the identified black spot areas which is very promising after the maintenance work was carried out, "he said.

He was speaking to reporters after launching the implementation of the Work Vote Round 3 of the Federal Roads Maintenance, here today. Also present were Secretary General YBhg. Datuk Himmat Singh and the State Director of Public Works Department, YBhg. Datuk Ir Rosman Yahya. Works Minister said maintenance and repair in the 114 areas will begin next month and usually take four to five months to complete. In the meantime, he was also satisfied with the federal road maintenance work done by the subcontractors and hope the contractors that receive contracts from the ministry will implement their responsibilities efficiently.

"The first round of federal road maintenance work involving an allocation of RM37.4 million was launched in July last year in Alor Setar, Kedah saw all the work assigned to the selected contractor completed within the stipulated period. "Similarly, with the second round, which was launched last November in Ipoh, Perak. All contracts worth RM52 million is in progress and expected to be completed end of May," he said. He said the third round involves 262 projects worth of RM18 million was launched simultaneously today across the country and expected to be completed later this year. - Bernama