Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad stated that the construction of the new highway route named West Ipoh Span Expressway (WISE) is under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), thus not utilizing public funds. Although the WISE project is funded under PMI but at the end of the day the people are the one that foot the bill. Hence, open tender is still necessary.
Although the WISE project would be constructed by a private company, the company will surely collect toll fees as a way to cover the cost of the project. Therefore, the cost of the project would ultimately be born by the people
The Perak state government must utilize an open tender approach in order to ensure that the WISE project could be completed with the most cost-efficient way to reduce the amount of toll fees collected hence incurring the least amount of burden upon the public.
I request for the state government to not involve any GLCs in the project nor take up any financial guarantee to avoid the new WISE project from suffering the same fate as the Perak MAPS theme park which ended up a white elephant project.
The new North-South Expressway route from Kuala Kangsar to Batu Gajah (Siputeh) and extended until Gopeng will only be able to reduce the rate of traffic accidents and congestion problems involving the Menora Tunnel. However, the route does not address the traffic accident hotspot and congestion problems that are rampant between Gopeng and Tapah North South Expressway(PLUS) near Gua Tempurung.
My suggestion to the state government is that, rather than just solving half of the problems by setting the final stop at Gopeng, the state government should consider rerouting WISE, extending the route to Kampar and Tapah.
The Kampar-Tapah extension not only reduces the traffic accident and congestion problems near Gua Tempurung in the pre-existing PLUS route, it is also a more economically sensible route. The original plan for WISE from Kuala Kangsar to Gopeng is a detour that is much longer in distance as compared to the PLUS route which is not as sensible.
Meanwhile the Kuala Kangsar-Batu Gajah-Kampar-Tapah WISE route provides an alternative that is shorter than the original North-South Expressway(PLUS) and at the same time reducing traffic accidents and congestion in two separate locations, which is the more sensible plan of action.
Might I also remind the Barisan National government that they owe it to the people of Kampar to build a highway exit in the town of Kampar. In every election campaign since the 90’s, BNl had promised the people of Kampar that a PLUS highway exit would be built. During the 13th and 14th General election, MCA had even included the Kampar PLUS highway exit in their election manifesto. However, the people of Kampar had been waiting endlessly just to have disappointment rain upon them.
Since Kampar and Tapah are two of the up and coming townships south of Ipoh, the Kampar-Tapah extension would be able to drive the economy of Perak. Especially in Kampar where the lack of highway exits causes the town’s tourism sector to suffer due to the inconvenience of traveling to Kampar. A highway exit to Kampar could stimulate the tourism sector of the towns within the Kampar district like Malim Nawar, Tanjung Tualang, Kampung Timah and Mambang Diawan.
This is the one and only chance for the state government to finally solve the issue of traffic accidents and congestion on the North-South Expressway once and for all. For a more long term solution, the government should take this opportunity to address the problems in its entirety and not just solve half of the problem while ignoring the other half.
Thus, I hereby urge the state government to reconsider the rerouting of WISE to resolve the accident and congestion problems haunting the North-South Expressway in Perak and improving the economy of the state.