FIFTEEN phase 1 work packages of the Pan Borneo Highway will be completed by January 2025, said Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi.

He said three of the 15 packages are complete and can be used.

“The 19 phase 1B packages … (are) packages that have not yet begun and are expected to be tendered in the fourth quarter of 2023, after the Value Management Laboratory is finalised,” he told reporters after a working visit to the Donggongon road upgrade project site in Papar today.

Also present were his deputy Abdul Rahman Mohamad and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister III Shahelmey Yahya, who is also Sabah works minister.

The Pan Borneo Highway comprises 35 work packages along 706km from the Sabah-Sarawak border in Sindumin up to Tawau. Work began in July 2016.

Nanta said the federal government has allocated RM6.5 billion for Sabah’s development.

“The allocation is to build slope bridges and such. A total of RM2.23 billion from the allocation is for the (Pan Borneo Highway). The federal government has also agreed to increase allocations to resolve road issues in Sabah,” he said.

Nanta said his working visit to Sabah is to discuss with the state Works Ministry the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s Borneo Expedition along the highway next month.

“I want the ministry, especially the Sabah Public Works Department, to conduct a survey of all the roads the Borneo Expedition will use so the programme runs smoothly,” he said. – Bernama, August 20, 2023.