BRT priority not monorail
Published on: Thursday, November 23, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Deputy Chief Minister cum Infrastructure Development Minsiter Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan said his Ministry had no plans yet to build a monorail in the city. He was replying to Luyang Assemblyman Datuk Dr Hiew King Chew who asked whether the government will build the Kota Kinabalu monorail to reduce traffic congestion and solve the city's lack of car park bays problem. However Pairin said the State Government planned to implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) two years ago where the Federal Government agreed to finance the construction of a new public transport system in Kota Kinabalu.
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"The proposed BRT will use a dedicated lane and be implemented through the concept of Public Private Partnership (PPP) with a total cost estimate of RM2 billion. "The project involves two phases with a 44km range. Phase 1 of Line 1 Kapayan-Kota Kinabalu-Inanam of 15km will be implemented first at a cost of RM1 billion."At this time the government has identified a consultant to carry out the feasibility study for the BRT project in KK. "It is expected to take four months to complete and the scope of the research will cover traffic research, social impact assessment, environmental assessment, earthquake assessment, selection of line and locations of stations, terminals, depots and parks and ride, preliminary implementation and operational requirements, provisions for BRT scheme and economic and financial analysis.
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"At this moment the Public Works Department has begun the preparations for the corridor on the new northern route and also roads that have been upgraded for alternative transportation for public transportation, bicycling and pedestrian walkways."On the issue of lack of car parking areas in the city, as this is under the responsibility of City Hall, my ministry is in constant contact with City Hall to find the best way to solve the problem."
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Pairin said in this matter City hall has confirmed two approaches to address the issue."The first is supply management which is increasing the number of car parking areas through rearrangement of the road spaces to increase the number of car park bays and plans for the construction of multi-story carpark buildings. "The second is demand management which is to use car parking fee structures that encourage the short time use of car parks. Such as the creation of A1 parking charges (RM1 for half hour with a maximum two hour limit) in high demand areas such as areas close to banks."For the long term strategy, when the public transportation system has been upgraded, the provision of car park bays in areas where public transportation stations are located to encourage the use of public transportation to the city centre."Replying to a supplementary question from Luyang Assemblyman Datuk Hiew King Chiew that people will not use the BRT fully as they want to use their own cars and the BRTs vehicles will only add to the City's congestion and secondly whether the Government going to consider building the monorail using 'one' fund as the (monorail) company can fully finance the project, Pairin said he appreciated what Hiew was trying to say but said there were many factors involved and that having a monorail did not mean 100 pe rcent utilisation. "Whatever system created in the world it will not be fully utilised by humans. That is a fact. So we cannot talk about 100pc utilisation."What we need to put across is a type of facility and its going to be a varied facility. You are thinking of a scenario whereby needs of people, community , business and industry increase. So we need to use our ingenuity to plan short, medium and long term."So when we emphasize the monorail of course its on the agenda, it all depends on the scenario or the situation, demand and also the capacity of the government and the solution which is provided by other type of facilities that the government provides. "For example the flyovers (in the city) and the Pan Borneo (highway) and the need to increase the number of parking areas. That is to me crucial. Replying to a supplementary question from Inanam Assemblyman Dr Roland Chia on whether the State Government plans to provide free bus services as in Selangor to encourage the people use the bus services and not to drive and secondly whether the state government will take up multilevel car park designs in limited car park areas i.e. A1 areas due to the city's congestion, Pairin said he was not sure if Selangor offered free bus rides. He said City Hall did introduce the city bus service which he thinks is free but how effective it was remains to be seen. "Obviously in certain areas in various developed places, they have a system to provide public transport to tourists for example. You hop on and get a free ride and this is already there and of course is monitoring to see how effective and useful. "We are encouraging private company multi level parking. Anybody is interested is welcome so their proposal can be considered." Pairin said he also noticed that the Imago multi level car park seems to having a lukewarm response from the public. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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