Plan to extend Sabah rail to L Datu, Kuching
Published on: Saturday, September 24, 2005
Kota Kinabalu: Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) on Friday said the railway connection from Tanjung Aru to Tenom will be eventually extended to Kuching, Sarawak under its long-term railway planning.Its Managing Director, Datuk Mohd Salleh Abdullah, said the corporation also plans to link Tanjung Aru with the towns in the East Coast, namely, Lahad Datu and Tawau."Our plan is to formulate railway transportation not only in Sabah but in Sarawak as well and subsequently the rehabilitation of tracks to Tenom in the short-term planning," he said.
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According to him, the second phase of the short-term improvement programme from Tanjung Aru to Tenom would commence soon.He said this at a press conference after the opening of the 26th Joint Conference between KTMB and State Railway of Thailand (SRT) by Deputy Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar.KTMB, he said, aims to complete the rehabilitation programme within two- and-a-half years at a cost of RM330 million.He added RM10.6 million has already been spent in 2003 from the initial RM28 million the corporation requested previously.
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Meanwhile, Tengku Azlan said the first phase of the short-term improvement plan for Sabah State Railway (SSR) was completed in November 2003."The RM10.6 million project was carried out jointly by KTMB and SSR to sustain and to ensure the safety of SSR's operations," he said.
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He said although geographically and administratively the Sabah State Railway has never been under the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad's purview, KTMB has been entrusted to undertake the implementation of the project on behalf of the Federal Government.On other developments, Mohd Salleh said the State Government has asked for a loan of RM58 million from the Federal Government to construct a workshop as well as to purchase new rolling stocks and spare parts."With the purchase of rolling stocks, including a new generation of diesel locomotive, the travelling time from Tanjung Aru to Tenom which takes five hours would be cut down to two and a half hours," he said.On the proposal to build a railway track from the Kepayan train station to Sepanggar Port and passing through the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP), he said it is not included in its long-term planning.However, he said if the proposal is implemented the tracks would have to be built on elevated grounds, which he said would be very costly.Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan, nevertheless, said the matter would be looked into.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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