Sabah Railway seeking additional RM35 million
Published on: Tuesday, March 21, 2023
By: Johan Aziz
Robert (left) inspecting the Tenom railway station.
Tenom: The State Railway Department is seeking an additional allocation of almost RM35 million from the federal Ministry of Finance (MoF) for track and hill slope repair works along the Tenom-Rayoh tracks.Sabah Works Assistant Minister Datuk Robert Tawik said RM30 million of the amount would be for the repair of collapsed slopes along the Tenom-Pangi-Rayoh tracks and RM4.8 million to repair the tracks.
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“This is urgent as the people in Kg Pangi and Kg Rayoh have been waiting for a long time for the tracks and slopes to be repaired,” he told the media after a working visit to the State Railway Department station, here, Monday.
Robert said the Ministry was hopeful that the MoF would provide the allocation.
During the visit, Robert, accompanied by officers and staff of the State Railway Department station here, boarded a railcar to survey the slopes along the Tenom-Pangi-Rayoh tracks.
Previously, the central government had allocated almost RM50 million for upgrading the tracks spanning 26.9 kilometres in 2017.
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Recently, the people of Kg Pangi appealed to the Government, especially the State Railway Department, to speed up repairs, especially replacing the rail tracks, which had been damaged by a rock collapse during a landslide that occurred on Jan 15.
They claimed that villagers could not bring agricultural produce such as rubber, coffee and rice to the market because of the problem.
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Kg Pangi Village Community Development Council (MPKK) Chairman Jaidi Liar said there were also road ravages along the way to villages such as Pangi, Rayoh and Halogilat, making it difficult to connect south and north.
“Such a situation forces us to ride our home-made carts even though they are at risk of accidents.
“Not only do we face the difficulties of daily groceries but other issues, including transporting 13 teachers and two students to and fro Tenom/Pangi daily because there are no other alternatives,” he said.
The severely affected area was along the Tenom-Pangi tracks of about four kilometres. It is understood that the State Railway Department has cleaned up the area but damage to the tracks has been a major constraint.
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