PUTATAN: Sabah Public Works Minister Datuk Ir Shahelmey Yahya does not deny elements fighting for contracts and lobbying being among factors affecting the smooth completion of the Pan Borneo Highway in Sabah.
However, Shahelmey, who is also Deputy Chief Minister III, said there are also other factors.
“There is some truth but actually more due to termination of the Project Implementation Partner (PDP) contract, land acquisition and utility transfer.
“We don’t see it as one (cause), but one case after another,” he said after attending presentation of contributions for 2023 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) Outstanding Students on Friday.
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He added that comparisons are often made on the Pan Borneo between Sabah and Sarawak but implementation of the two have differences.
The implementation of Pan Borneo Sarawak started in 2015 while Pan Borneo Sabah started in 2016.
“The total number of packages for the Pan Borneo Sarawak implementation only involved 11 large-sized packages while Sabah’s involved 35 packages.
“Why Sabah has more packages than Sarawak is because we not only wanted the Pan Borneo Highway project but at the same time took the opportunity of ‘capacity building’ for our local contractors, that was the main of goal.
“Second is in relation to taking back land. In Sarawak, the Pan Borneo highway line of land had been gazetted earlier, while in Sabah although it follows the existing Federal highway line, the existing corridor in Sabah is small. So for us to widen the corridor is taking quite a long time.
“The next thing is that Pan Borneo Sarawak successfully obtained “Sukuk” issuance, while Pan Borneo Sabah missed out when there was a change of government in 2018,” Shahelmey said.
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