Kota Kinabalu: Both speakers were not sure why the railway line that used to link Melalap, Tenom to the Jesselton Wharf was dismantled. But they opined that it would have been an advantage to have a tram like in Hong Kong and in Australia, running up and down from Putatan, Kepayan to Kota Kinabalu, a boost to tourists’ interest.
Other than Hong Kong, according to Lo, only freight trains are profitable.
Lo said Sabah’s train service is not reliable. If it is reliable, people would use it, although the State government would have to subsidise commuter train services as a service to the community and currently most goods are transported by lorries.
“Commuter trains do not make profit,” Lo said, noting past incidents of derailment, landslides that blocked the Tenom-Beaufort route, with many villagers using their own makeshift trolley transport system on the railway.
He said the logistics – good and efficient ports, good road networks, rail, warehousing are very important to industrial development.
The Ministry of Industry has announced three industrial parks, and the management wanted to control the development with their own power and water supply.
Those utility authorities who only want to protect their own turf and the State government would have to cooperate and make these developments a success.
It was not known how many more feasibility studies have to be done for building the Labuan bridge, if linked with a high speed train, the Labuan International Airport can be used as another airport to serve Sabah.
Raja also talked on the need for urban regeneration as the next trend “as many buildings are actually getting older and coming to the end of their lifespan.”
He cited his experience in managing older buildings and the case of the Sinsuran shopping Complex in the state capital, ideal for a commercial hotel redevelopment zone area.
Raja opined that the Land Subsidiary Title Enactment is an archaic law that needs to be updated to bring the mutual consent voting threshold down from 100 per cent for endorsing redevelopment of old buildings.
“We are not using West Malaysia’s Strata Management Act or the Urban Renewal Act in Sabah,” he said.
He urged that lands should be provided by the State government or its agencies for social housing schemes, rather than depending on developers to provide affordable housing.
Both speakers emphasised the importance of having comprehensive information on the resource potential in all the state’s land areas and gazetted local and structural plans with building information modelling data, digital maps, geospatial data, utility mapping for newer development, to be ready for development opportunities, other than funding.
With coordinated data integrated and updated information will boost proper and better development.
This will save a lot of costs in the long run for responsible and effective State planning which is very important for Sabah’s development.
