THE proposed Light Rail Transit (LRT) transport system for Kuching, which was shelved last September amid strong opposition and shifting government priorities, is now back on track, said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

Abang Johari said he was now relooking the proposal as a possible solution to for those driving between Samarahan and the city.

“I listen to the people,” he said at the Sarawak chief minister’s environmental awards last night, adding that the lines would run through heavily populated areas of Kuching and Samarahan.

One of the areas Abang Johari was referring to is the Samarahan highway connecting Kota Samarahan and Kuching city.

A journey of an hour during off-peak period on the 23km highway turns into a four- to five-hour crawl during the morning and evening rush hours.

“LRT could be one of the solutions (to the traffic congestion),” he said.

The other options include building another highway or installing traffic lights at critical road intersections, he said.

The shelved LRT plan was projected to cost RM10.7 billion and it was to link Kuching with Samarahan and Serian divisions via six lines using environmentally friendly trains running on hydrogen fuel.

In March, Abang Johari announced the routes of three of the six lines whose total track length is some 155km.

The proposed Line 1 is 62.4km running from Kota Samarahan to Damai via Sungai Batu while Line 2, the longest of the three lines announced at 82km, is from the market town of Serian to the industrial port area of Senari.

The line passes through Siburan.

The proposed third line is a city dispersal line of 10.8km.

The remaining three lines are to be implemented at a later stage.

Construction work was to have started next year with the LRT targeted to be operational in 2024, and a government-linked company called Sarawak Metro had been registered to manage the LRT system. – December 13, 2018.