This was revealed by works minister Alexander Nanta Linggi following an event in Tawau, Sabah where he announced allocations for road maintenance and repairs in Sabah, Bernama reported.
“That is the reason for the backlog in road maintenance and repairs. To improve our road quality through maintenance, we hope to receive a budget of more than RM1 billion in the upcoming budget, as the current allocation only covers 25%,” he was quoted as saying.
According to Nanta, the ministry will be applying for a higher allocation under Budget 2025.
He said this would be for a special programme to improve roads, considering Malaysia will assume the Asean chairmanship in 2025 and also in view of 2026 being Visit Malaysia Year.
“Continuous focus on road maintenance is part of the commitment by the government to consistently provide comfortable and safe infrastructure for all Malaysians,” he said.
He also took note of public complaints regarding street lighting issues and urged concession companies to come up with practical solutions within financial means, including installing cats-eye reflectors or solar lights on dark and risky roads.
Earlier, Nanta announced an allocation of RM130 million for periodic maintenance of pavements and non-pavements for federal roads in Sabah this year.
He said RM10 million of this amount was allocated to the Tawau district.
“Today, I decided to check the condition of federal road R13 Jalan Sandakan-Tawau following numerous complaints about poor road conditions. Incidentally, there was also a culvert collapse here that caused damage to the road structure.
“This occurred at Section 256.295, causing one lane to be closed to road users. An allocation of RM1.5 million has been approved to rebuild the damaged section, with work expected to be completed by October,” he told reporters after inspecting the culvert.
He added that maintenance of federal roads in Sabah is under the full supervision of the Sabah public works department (JKR), which has been appointed as the representative of the federal government.