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Completion of KKIA upgrade now expected by first quarter of 2012

Posted: 06 Aug 2011 10:56 PM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: Upgrading of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) has yet again been delayed and is now expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said the contractors were struggling to meet the various earlier deadlines, especially in the expansion of the 2,988-metre runway and taxi-ways due to several factors.

"There have been many constraints for the contractors, especially in the expansion of the runway as part of it is still being used for take-off and landing of aircraft.

"There is very limited time as works are mainly done after midnight when the runway is closed," he told reporters after being briefed by Malaysia Airports Berhad on the current situation of the project, here, today.

Kong hoped the contractors would put in more effort, including hiring more
manpower, to meet the new deadline as KKIA was receiving more demands from
international airlines to fly to Kota Kinabalu.

He said due to those demands, the development of the airport, which was 89.78 per cent complete as of July 31, was now in a critical situation as it had
become the second busiest airport in the country after Kuala Lumpur. - Bernama

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Govt aims to reduce queues at KTM Komuter lines with new trains

Posted: 06 Aug 2011 10:45 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: When the newly-acquired trains from CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive from China are put into service for the KTM Komuter lines by the end of this year, the government hopes to reduce the agonising wait of more than 30 minutes among train commuters during peak hours.

Commuters on the Rawang-Sungai Gadut, Batu Caves-Port Klang, Sentul-Port
Klang and Batu Caves-Rawang routes will benefit from the additional capacity
from the trains, technically known as electric multiple units or EMUs.

The first of the 38 EMUs will arrive next month and will be tested before
they are put into service.

About 100,000 commuters jam KTM Komuter trains daily during weekdays to
travel in about 20 sets of EMUs of three cars each available to them.

From a schedule of 15-minute intervals at one time, which theoretically
required at least 36 EMUs to be provided each day by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd
(KTMB), this has since slowed down to 20-minute intervals or, which theoretically means 25 EMUs.

But KTMB does not even have the luxury of 25 EMUs. Since September 2009,

their availability has been down to around 21 EMUs daily because of broken down
trains which have not been repaired from 62 EMUs at one time. On bad and
unfortunate days, this can sink to a precariously low of 15 to 18 EMUs per day.

Hence, delays of 40 minutes or more on certain sectors are not uncommon with
KTM Komuter trains always packed like sardines during weekdays.

This also amplifies the fact that there is no shortage of passengers for KTM
Komuter trains in view of its relatively cheap cost as it only costs RM6 from KL
Sentral to Seremban.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha told Bernama that the government
had decided to improve the situation through a number of initiatives under the
National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for public transport.

The NKRA initiatives were launched in July 2009 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak as part of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) towards
achieving Vision 2020 and improving the government's service delivery to the
people.

Besides improving capacity, Kong said the measures were also to raise the
daily ridership to 600,000 public transport commuters in the Klang Valley by the
end of 2012.

This target, he said, was 2.5 times more than the current ridership, "It's a tall order for us but we are working hard to achieve our target," Kong said.

The current daily ridership is about 240,000 for public transport in the
Klang Valley, estimated to represent 10 to 12 per cent of the total population
in the country's busiest urban centre.

Kong explained that the Klang Valley's public transport services had already
been filled to the brim, particularly for rail services (KTM Komuter, RapidKL,
LRT and Monorail).

Such a pressing situation demanded the creation of an additional capacity
for 360,000 more people to migrate to public transport from private vehicles, he
said.

Of the potential increase, 58 per cent or 207,000 will be for rail and 42 per cent or 153,000 will be for buses.

Rail will be the biggest contributor, with KTM Komuter contributing around
95,000 passengers, the Kelana Jaya LRT line 62,000 and the Ampang LRT line
33,000.

The first step towards improving capacity took place at the end of 2010
when new four-car train sets were introduced on the Kelana Jaya LRT line, the
most congested rail line in the Klang Valley, from the previous two-car
train sets.

The initiative was to secure "quick wins" for the people's benefit under the
NKRA for urban public transport. - Bernama

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Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Sabtu, 6 Ogos 2011

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