PROPERTY NEWS � by Property Hunter
Bus Rapid Transit being planned for Kota Kinabalu
To BRT or not to BRT? That is the question.
“ An LRT service would be justifiable if there are tens of thousands of commuters to be transported daily. Kota Kinabalu does not have such a population base for now, so BRT is the way to go,”
iLoveSabah
The groundwork is being laid for major improvements in the city’ s public transportation system, with a bus rapid transit( BRT) system on the drawing board.
Saying it is going to be“ a very exciting time for Sabah” now that he is the Minister for EPU, Minister in the Prime Minister’ s Department in charge of the EPU, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, said he would do his best to help the State but without compromising the other parts of Malaysia.
“ An LRT service would be justifiable if there are tens of thousands of commuters to be transported daily. Kota Kinabalu does not have such a population base for now, so BRT is the way to go,” said Abdul Rahman who oversees the Economic Planning Unit( EPU).
He said the BRT was part of a master plan to improve Kota Kinabalu’ s public transport system, which he described as“ challenging” now.
“ It has been said that someone using public transport travelling 15km from Inanam to Putatan here will take as long as two hours. Surely this can be improved,” he said at a breaking of fast with the press.
He said a proposal for a statewide railway service would be considered if it was found to be viable for transporting cargo and commuters between Sabah’ s east and west coasts.
Currently, Sabah’ s 134km railway service that dates back to 1900 operates from Kota Kinabalu to the southwest town Beaufort and on to Tenom in the interior.
Abdul Rahman said the EPU had approved the upgrading of the constantly congested stretch between the Indah Permai housing area and the Yayasan Sabah complex in Likas here.
The state government, he said, had also requested the road improvement and widening works be extended all the way to Tanjung Lipat near the downtown area.
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