By Amar Shah Mohsen
SHAH ALAM, March 4 — State constituencies in Selangor with larger road networks will soon be allocated more funds for repair and maintenance works, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.
This is in comparison to the current practice of allocating an equal amount of RM3 million per constituency for the maintenance of roads under local councils.
State executive councillor for infrastructure Izham Hashim said the move is to ensure a fairer distribution of funds based on the total road length and the needs of the respective locations.
“We are actually planning to do this but haven’t made an announcement yet. We discussed this during the recent retreat with Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari, as I do see the need in implementing (such policy),” he said, here.
“Previously, each state constituency received RM3 million to identify roads that need to be repaved. However, we found that there are locations with not many roads, and they have the luxury to even repave the same road every year.
“As such, starting this year, we will consolidate all the funds and determine the distribution based on needs and the length of the roads. This will start in the near future.”
Izham was responding to a question from Subang Jaya assemblyman Michelle Ng Mei Sze. who wanted to know if the state government intends to review the current distribution of funds for state constituencies.
“There are constituencies with more roads than others. The fairer way would be to base it on the length of roads,” she said.
Earlier, Izham said Selangor receives RM500 million a year under the Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris) to ensure the proper maintenance of roads across the state.
He said priority is given to registered roads that have been identified for repairs due to damages.
For roads in the state that are not yet registered under Marris — approximately 4,000km in total length — Izham said RM5 million has been allocated annually for the next four years.
