KUCHING: A new fire and rescue (Bomba) station will soon be ready to serve the areas of Kota Sentosa, Batu Kitang and part of Batu Kawa.
In stating this, Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen said that he has met up with Tiong Ling Hii, the acting director of the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department to view the identified new Bomba station to be sited at Batu Kitang Light Industrial Zone.
“This project was approved by Housing and Local Government (KPKT) minister Nga Kor Ming back in January 2023 when I visited him personally at his office in Putrajaya and sought his approval back then. It involves the purchasing of an industrial semi-detached building and to be converted into a Bomba station. That way it is faster and more cost effective.
“Nga approved the project there and then and the whole acquisition process got to kick off,” said Chong in a press statement on Saturday.
He also said that the Sarawak Bomba has sought for the new Bomba station back in 2021 but did not receive any response from the government then.
“Therefore when the government changed hand at the end of 2022, the Sarawak Bomba took the initiative to quickly request for the project in January 2023 and it immediately got approval from the new KPKT minister.
“According to Tuan Tiong, after several rounds of negotiation, the developer of the light industrial building finally agreed to sell the semi-detached building to Bomba and signed the agreement in June this year.
“Bomba has also within a short time prepared the architecture plan for the renovation work to be carried out. The tender for the renovation project will be called in one or two months’ time and it is expected that the new station will be up and running by March or April next year,” he explained.
Chong said if everything turns out smoothly, the whole project takes about 26 months from scratch to operation.
“I believe it is reasonably fast. As I was informed by Tuan Tiong, there are still some minor administrative issues to be sorted out before the station can be operative. Such issue involves both the state and the federal agencies.
“To that, I will give my assistance to expedite the resolution of such administrative problem. Meanwhile, the tender process and thereafter the renovation work can be carried out so that the new Bomba station can be in operation to serve the people in the area as soon as possible.
“We will do our best to provide the service to the people of Sarawak,” said Chong.
