Malaysia has made a commitment to upgrade the safety of the majority of the country’s 144,000 km of roads to meet international standards by the year 2020, according to reports by The Sun and The Star.
Transport minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said on Friday that more steps needed to be taken to stop the increase of accidents and fatalities on the roads – the number of crashes swelled from 476,196 in 2014 to 489,606 last year, while the number of deaths grew from 6,674 in 2014 to 6,706 last year.
These accidents, he said, cost the country RM8.63 billion last year – previous reports stated that this amount could consist of medical costs, insurance and car repairs.
Liow added that the ministry was looking to raise the ratings of its roads under the International Road Assessment Programme (IRAP), a non-profit group that assesses the safety of the roads of more than 70 countries, much like how new car assessment programmes look at the safety of cars currently on sale.
“My ministry together with other stakeholders is committed to elevating the standards of 75% of Malaysia’s road infrastructure to at least a three-star performance throughout high volume road networks by the year 2020,” he said.
The programme claims that each time a road’s rating went up by one star, the level of potential injury and death on that road could be halved. However, Liow said that there would be no point in introducing better roads if drivers’ attitudes did not improve with them, noting that according to IRAP’s protocols, a road could even have its rating downgraded from four stars to one star if motorists on it behaved poorly.
In addition, Liow said that IRAP will also assist in prioritising the roads to improve “by evaluating the costs and benefits of each investment,” adding that an ASEAN IRAP will also be launched in 2018.
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Ha ha ha. This is like Syabas. Government gave Syabas 10 yrs ago many many many billions to Syabas to upgrade all the water pipes, until today, everyday also got so many burst pipes.
Here the same. Government will allocate say RM20 billion for this project, RM15 billion go into crony pockets. Then only RM5 billion is used to really upgrade roads.
This is Malaysian style. And all the contracts are given to the UMNO cowboys.
because of this. i say all cars must have traction control. stupid toyota and perodua no ESP – will crash into the potholes and cause accidents.
Singapore is so clever. 30 years ago they put a big huge piping all over the country. When ever new tech comes in like fibre optic etc, they just pull the cable into the big pipe all over the country. That also they do it from 12 am to 5am. No traffic is disrupted.
In Malaysia, the Nasi Lemak brain don’t think far ahead. Every new technology and wiring, we dig dig dig. That also, dig for 1 whole year like Jalan Gasing. Dig the whole day. Each company dig separately. Syabas, TNB, Telekom, Indah Water and MBPJ. etc etc. So digging is whole year and every year.
This is the difference between Singapore and Malaysia brain. Just look at how long MBPJ is taking to make 1 way system in PJ. Already 2 years and still like bodoh. Singapore would have done this 1 way system in 1 month. Everyday, hundreds of accidents happen in PJ now.
MBPJ Songlap so much of money. Already got 20 stop orders. Cause crony RM2 company don’t know how to do the job. Each crony company given millions. All relatives of the MBPJ Exco
singapore clever chinese administration sure different mah.
Car taxes highest in the world, toll prices also mahal gila, now even petrol is not subsidised yet we still get substandard roads. It’s not just pour tar on the road then kau tim, Please see how is the proper layout of roads. Want to have rombongan no need go far far to California etc just go Singapore also enough already
All over the world, their roads can last for 20 years without lubang. In Malaysia, pothole appear in few months. Why? Very simple. It is Songlapping. The person given the contract uses very cheap and inferior materials to save cost and untung lebih. This is why potholes appear so fast. But you cannot complain about the contractor cause the contractor is UMNO crony. He can do anything. He is Al Capone. What he give, you must take.
Please upgrade 100% of the roads in Sabah & Sarawak first.
government talk cock again…. i bet by 2020 objective to repair the roads will not be met.
even reducing the car prices are also not met. how can we trust your words?
Macam Tin Kosong. Make the most promises but have empty execution.
by 2020, the roads will be equally bad if not worse for the shoddy work done between now and then.
even by some miracle the upgrading work survived, the road builders cant lay a smooth road to save their lives.
either way still unchanged news for Malaysian road users.
Just another excuse to songlap more money. Call up some UITM graduates to draft some half bake, over ambitious project papers, make extensive reference to international standards, then appoint some cucu-cicik, bini, crony, ketua cawangan contractors to carry out the job. In the end, project over-budget, main-con sapu 90% of the monies by buying properties in London, 3 Lambo, 3 Ferraris parking at their newly build istana, sub-con and sub-sub-con don’t get the money, use hampeh quality material to finish the job.
One year later, Audit Negara will report the project fail to meet any requirements, demolish everything, draft new project papers, appoint new cucu-cicik, bini, crony, ketua cawangan contractors to songlap even more money. Same story, just repeat again and again, and again, and again…. Typical Songlap Songlap Malaysia style.
Do you think the government really care about the life of the road users? They just think of songlap and sapu wang only. Road upgrading is just an excuse.
Come 2020, 75% of the road will still be full of potholes and korek-korek lubang by JKR, Majlis Perbandaran, TM, Indah Waters, Tenaga and etc. Ada Korek = Ada Business. No korek = Takda Business. So must korek in order to maintain business. Ada business = Ada Songlap = Semua Happy. This is the mantra of our road maintenance and use of public fund.
Upgrade to meet international standard by 2020?
What is the big deal? They are from the same camp of people that claimed that Malaysia will qualify for World Cup in 2014. Also Malaysia will abolish NAP by 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 …
Yeaaa, another party clown trying to amuse Msians
I’ll wait until I see improvements. Right now one of my cars at home is grounded because 2 of its rims are blended due to potholes and it’s undergoing repair.
u need professional driving training.
The world competitiveness Report ranked Malaysian roads on par with Germany and USA (at 13th, 14th and 15th respectively sharing 5.7 points). I wonder if the survey take into account the so many potholes on our roads.The best road is in United Arab Emirates (of course lah no rains there).
although uae doesnt has rain but there are sand everywhere which need more working,money and time on their road than us
Those ppl better not be in their positions in 2020… We fxxxing need new faces to see by that time… Same old monkey talk we so tired of…
Coming from Europe, I have to say Malaysian roads are pretty good comparatively. It’s the drivers that are second rate.
The way Malaysia do thing. Boleh lah….Janji tutup lubang, take photo and submit claim. Job Done. If happen again, another new contract coming up and repeat every 6 months.
Beside the cheap material non compliance standard, the standard operation procedure also not in place.
During construction of any new road, our soil improvement and compaction plus sub base are not done properly. This is why our road never flat after the first year of completion. We never allow soil settlement due to tight schedule and Quality control just merely sign off the paper. This especially visible at area around Klang or any road construction passing through swampy area. or ex. palm plantation.
Every time, we patch the holes, we just merely cover up the hole without repairing the sub base. Immediate after that, we allow traffic to pass through without any time for curing. The newly paved road shall allowed to cure.
Again, the patching of the holes shall be done as of piece of the road, from edge to edge. not only pour bitumen and over up. They shall cut, dig, fill sub base, compact and pave new bitumen. Allow to cure before open it up for traffic. This shall be done at night, not during rush hour! I have seen during rainy time, this workers still pour bitumen and cover up. how long can it last?
Heavy vehicle or over capacity lorry also contribute to the damage of the road, our road have certain load design, only if they follow the standard during the design. It is not meant to be used by lorry on certain route.
Lastly, Water is the culprit, our water draining system are badly design, as a result water ponding everywhere which speed up the road damage.
I will suggest our work minister to consider concrete road around the city. As what being practice in Hong kong and certain country.
Atleast, to have the highway standard road thickness