Works minister Fadillah Yusof said among the conditions is conducting an impact assessment on the construction, environment and traffic management in the proposed areas.
“We have brought the project to the Cabinet and it has been approved in principle.
“Nonetheless, the proposed company has to comply with the conditions stipulated by LLM and the government.
“One of them is to carry out a social impact and traffic study to ensure the project is viable when built,” he said at a media conference after opening the public works department senior officers’ conference here today.
Fadillah said the project, to start in two years, would be finalised when all studies had been completed and presented to the government.
In May, Perak menteri besar Saarani Mohamad said the state and federal governments had agreed to the construction of the new road stretching 64km.
Construction of the road would not involve government funds and would instead be implemented by a private company which would be given two years to start work after obtaining the funds and land acquisition.
On May 12, five Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah students were killed after their car was crushed by a trailer lorry and caught fire.
West Coast Highway
Meanwhile, speaking on the West Coast Expressway (WCE), Fadillah said a certain portion is only expected to be completed in the next three years due to problems faced by the appointed contractors as well as land acquisition issues.
He said appropriate measures, including changes in the alignment, had been taken.
“The land acquisition is under the state government. They have had to settle a lot of things. The project cannot proceed if the land is not ready.
“So I expect a portion of the WCE to be only completed three years from now.”
He said the contractor faced some technical problems in continuing the Tanjong Karang-Sabak Bernam stretch. Subsequently, IJM Corporation Bhd took over the project.
Based on the original schedule, the WCE project was expected to be completed by the end of 2022 or early 2023.