KUCHING: The construction of a flyover from the roundabout near Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to Stutong would greatly alleviate the severe traffic congestion in Samarahan.
Kota Samarahan Municipal Council (MPKS) chairman Datuk Peter Minos believes that a flyover would solve 80 percent of traffic woes in the area.
“This is because a lot of the people coming from Serian, Asajaya, and even Samarahan are heading to work in Kuching, and therefore are not going to stop along the way at Unimas or the Sarawak Heart Centre,” he said.
According to him, one of the key reasons behind the congestion in Samarahan was that three different groups of commuters would converge at one particular roundabout near Unimas, thus creating a bottleneck.
He explained that the three groups heading into Kuching via Samarahan consisted of commuters crossing the Batang Samarahan Bridge from Asajaya and Sadong Jaya; those from Serian, Siburan, and Tapah; and the locals.
“Then, once you enter the roundabout, there are no diversion roads — so this creates the jam,” he said during an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune and Suara Sarawak yesterday.
Minos hoped that the project to construct traffic lights at five roundabouts in Samarahan area would be tendered out by the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak within the next two months.
He said that in 2018, the chief minister had approved RM60 million to implement traffic lights at five roundabouts in the area in efforts to alleviate the severe traffic congestion.
These traffic lights comprised of three in Samarahan and one each at the Stutong and Tabuan Tranquility intersections.
He pointed out that two other projects namely the construction of an expressway from Batang Samarahan Bridge to the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) area as well as the implementation of Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) would also help ease traffic in Samarahan.
He noted that traffic jams normally occurred during peak times from 5 to 8 in the morning and again from 5 to 8 in the evening.
