The Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing was informed at the current parliamentary session in Kuala Lumpur that one of the projects is progressing ahead of schedule while another two were in accordance to their targets.

Works to upgrade an 8.8-kilometre stretch from the town here right up to the new airport was nearly 10 percent ahead of schedule when the contractor, Naim Cendera Sdn Bhd, had scored a 23 percent completion of the project against the scheduled achievement of 14 percent.

The Ministry of Works told the MP that the project that involved upgrading to a dual-carriageway and inclusive of the construction of a new bridge across Batang Kemena river was contracted at a cost of RM96.15 million which started on January 10 this year and targetted to be completed July 9, 2005.

Tiong had asked the Ministry of the planning that currently and would be implemented in developing road infrastructure here, which is a crucial aspect to support the position of Bintulu as an important centre of economic activities in the country.

Another project that had taken off October 4, 2001 is the upgrading to a dual-carriageway standard of an 11.5 kilometre stretch of the Bintulu-Sibu Road from the Kemena Industrial Area until the junction to the Tanjung Kidurong Road.

The project that include the construction of a new bridge across Sibiu River cost RM73,002,643.75 and had also been awarded to Naim Cendera who had completed 59.8 percent of the works and expected to accomplish it by February 3, 2005.

Another project that had achieved over a quarter of works accomplishment is the Tanjung Kidurong - Kuala Suai - Kuala Niah - Kuala Sibuti - Bakam Road which involved a length of 178 kilometres and had been carried out by PPES Works (S) Sdn Bhd.

The works had been contracted out a cost of RM581, 173, 224 and since its commencement on September 26, 2001 until recently, the contractor had succeeded in accomplishing 27.4 percent of the works.

Meanwhile, Tiong was also told that another project to upgrade the 15-kilometre Tanjung Kidurong Road for a cost of RM15 million approved under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (8MP) had to be deferred following the recent mid-term review of the plan.

The Ministry assured that they would review the proposal for the implementation of this project when they prepared their development programme under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) in 2005.