Construction of the West Ipoh Span Expressway (WISE) from Gopeng to Kuala Kangsar will start this year after the signing of the concession agreement, said Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad.
Saarani said that he was informed that the prime minister’s department’s Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta (UKAS) and WISE are looking at a suitable date for the agreement signing. “So once that is done, construction can start,” he told the media in Ipoh yesterday, reported by Bernama.
In December 2023, Saarani revealed that that the federal government had approved the WISE, a 60 km road from Gopeng to Kuala Kangsar that bypasses the North South Highway’s Menora Tunnel stretch. He said that WISE will be a private finance initiative (PFI), which means that a private company will fund the project in exchange for a concession – no government funds will be needed.
The Perak MB explained that WISE will complete the network of highways in the state, which frequently faces bad congestion, especially on the PLUS’ Menora Tunnel stretch. Currently, motorists have no other choice unless they take the narrow old trunk road from Sungai Siput to Chemor.
“If stuck due to an accident in the tunnel or below (the trunk road), people will have no option. But with WISE, they can exit at Kuala Kangsar and head straight to Gopeng (to continue to the PLUS), or exit at Changkat Jering and take the West Coast Expressway,” he illustrated.
In 2022, the Perak state government approved the proposal for the bypass road, which is also described as an effort to reduce the risk of deadly accidents. The steep descend from the Menora Tunnel to the Ipoh toll has seen its fair share of accidents through the years.
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