The government has approved an additional RM100 million for road maintenance works throughout Peninsular Malaysia. According to deputy works minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, this will be utilised for periodic maintenance work on pavement and non-pavement roads.
He said that RM70 million will be used for 79 periodic pavement maintenance works, while the remaining RM30 million has been allocated for 200 non-pavement periodic maintenance works.
“Periodic pavement road maintenance works involve repairing damaged pavements and road structures using techniques such as milling and paving, overlay, road structure reconstruction, and resurfacing. Non-pavement periodic maintenance covers repairing road assets other than pavements and road structures, such as painting road lines, maintaining bridges, fixing drains, repairing signs and road barriers,” he explained.
A fifth of this total will be provided for the southern region. “For the southern zone, which consists of Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka, we are offering 18 periodic pavement works worth RM15.06 million, and 36 non-pavement works worth RM6.5 million,” he said.
Speaking at the Peninsular Malaysia-Southern Zone Federal Road Maintenance Programme 2024, Ahmad said that Johor received the largest allocation, which is RM11.75 million, followed by Negeri Sembilan with RM6.645 million and Melaka with RM2.165 million.
From this allocation, Johor will be able to utilise RM8.05 million for 10 periodic pavement road maintenance works, while Negeri Sembilan has been allocated RM5.4 million for six maintenance works and Melaka, RM1.61 million for two maintenance works, Bernama reports.
As for non-pavement periodic maintenance, Johor received RM3.7 million for 36 maintenance works, Negeri Sembilan RM2.245 million for 11 maintenance works and Melaka RM555,000 for six maintenance works.
While welcome, the additional allocation won’t rectify everything, and more will undoubtedly be needed in the next budget. Works minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi previously said that around RM4 billion is needed annually to maintain all federal roads in the country, but for several decades only around RM1 billion has been allocated annually for this purpose.
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