RM3.13 million to improve federal highway motorcycle lanes

The Works Ministry has allocated RM3.13 million to improve the motorcycle lanes along the Federal Highway, which are now under the supervision of the ministry.

Its minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the short-term allocation for 2016 was for lighting up dark spots at the lanes and to increase the number of pump houses at sections which were frequently flooded.

"We will increase lighting, paint the tunnel walls with bright colours, paint lane lines, widen the path, increase the number of signboards and improve the entry and exit of the motorcycle lanes," he told a media conference after inspecting the highway's motorcycle lanes here Monday.

He said the ministry was also awaiting approval to build overhead ramps and increase the number of water pumps at Jalan 222, Petaling Jaya which was frequently flooded.

Earlier, Fadillah accompanied by Public Works Department (JKR) officers rode a motorcycle along the entire length of the Federal Highway to look at the problems faced by motorcyclists, starting from the Universiti LRT station in Kuala Lumpur until the Batu Tiga toll plaza here.

The 28.5km motorcycle lanes at the Federal Highway, the first in the country were supervised by four parties, namely the Works Department (JKT) (8.1km), KL City Hall (2.4km), Sprint (2km) and PLUS (16km).

Fadillah added that highway users who have complaints on damaged roads, could channel them directly to the ministry via its mobile application 'Aduan Jalan KKR' which has about 5,000 registered users since it was launched in March last year.

Commenting on the incident in which a crane hook crushed and killed a woman driver at Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, last Thursday, Fadillah said the ministry could only act if the construction company was registered with the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

"If the company is registered with CIDB and if they were found employing unregistered and incompetent workers, we can take action against the personnel involved and contractor.

"Investigations are still going on, we will wait for the results," he said.

In the 7.20pm incident, Chim Khoo Sing, 24, who hailed from Penang, died after being crushed by a one-tonne crane hook which fell down from a 20-storey building currently under construction.