By NELSON BENJAMIN and FARIK ZOLKEPLI
newsdesk@thestar.com.my | Apr 28, 2010
DPM: No plans to revive project
JOHOR BARU: The Government has no plans to revive the bridge project to replace the Johor causeway as it did not receive any official recommendation on the matter from the state government.
“We will have to wait as so far we have not received any report at the federal level,” Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said after a one-day official visit to the state including a site visit and briefing about the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex here yesterday.
Muhyiddin was asked to comment on the Johor Sultan’s remarks in The Star that a bridge should replace the Johor causeway to boost connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore.
Sultan Ibrahim said he was willing to be the mediator between both countries to resolve some of the issues, including the bridge project, supply of water to the island republic or even extending Singapore’s Mass Railway Transit into Johor Baru.
In 2006, then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi scrapped plans to build a crooked “scenic bridge” to replace the 80-year-old causeway.
The project was the brainchild of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Government had forked out hundreds of millions of ringgit for compensation and also to build an alternative route to the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex in Bukit Chagar due to the cancellation of the project.
On recent statements by Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Samad that a mini CIQ would be built for pedestrians, Muhyiddin said there were no plans as the issue did not arise at his briefing here yesterday.
“This issue was not raised at this meeting. Even Datuk Shahrir was here and he did not raise the issue,” he said, adding that a special committee had been formed to look into the grievances of people and also come up with ways to enhance the performance of the CIQ.
Muhyiddin said the committee, headed by the director-general of the Public Works Department, had been given one month to come up with the report. The report will also cover the management, cleanliness and traffic flow for both private and commercial vehicles.
“I am not saying that this complex is inefficient now, I am just saying that we have to come up with ways to improve the facilities for the people,” he said.
On another issue about Singapore not buying water from Johor, Johor Mentri Besar said the republic would stop buying water from one plant in Skudai after the expiry of the agreement next year.
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