The completion date of the Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway will only be announced after the tabling of the 12th Malaysian Plan (12MP), said Deputy Works Minister Eddin Syazlee Shith.
The project, which was initially projected to be completed next year, had experienced delays due to changes in policies, the termination of the Project Delivery Partner Agreement (PDPA) and retendering of several work packages, Eddin said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The tabling of 12MP is expected to happen next year.
“There are 20 more [packages] which will be tendered under the 12MP. The project implementation is subject to the allocation provided by the federal agency and only then can we estimate when the project can be fully completed,” Eddin said.
The progress of Phase 1 of the Sabah Pan Borneo Highway was at 32% as of June with the implementation of 11 packages while four more were being tendered, he added.
Eddin said the progress of Phase 1 of the Sabah Pan Borneo Highway stood at 32% as of June with the implementation of 11 packages, while four more are being tendered.
One out of the four is being retendered after the previous contract was cancelled due to requirement issues, he added. This contract covered the Tawau-Semporna route. A new contractor is expected to be named by the end of this year.
The Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway involves the construction of 1,236km of highways in three phases.
The estimated cost for Phase 1, involving 35 packages, is RM12.86 bil, covering 706km beginning from the south-western border town of Sindumin to Kota Kinabalu and on to the east coast of Sandakan-Tawau.
Phase two involves upgrading the 98km road from Tamparuli to Ranau while the third phase involves 432km in southern Sabah linking the east coast town of Tawau to interior Keningau and south-western Beaufort.
When fully completed, the whole Pan Borneo Highway will reportedly span 2,239km, including a 1,090km stretch in Sarawak. The construction of the Sarawak section, which is now 52% completed, is scheduled to be fully completed by 2022.
