Mt Kinabalu moving slightly every year

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah has the highest number of dangerous slopes in Malaysia and the Works Ministry says this is because Mount Kinabalu – its tallest mountain – is moving every year.

“If you’re talking about states, the biggest (in number) will be Sabah because based on the findings of the experts, Kinabalu is still moving,” Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof told reporters at the 4th International Conference on Slopes Malaysia 2015 here.

“It is moving a few centimetres a year,” he said, citing the example of earth movements in Kundansang which had caused buildings there to stand at crooked angles.

Fadillah did not give the total number of dangerous slopes in the country.

He said that there were more than 300 high-risk sloped areas along Malaysia’s federal roads, including Sabah and Sarawak.

He could not speak for other roads, adding that they were not under his jurisdiction.

However, he said his ministry had asked engineering group Kumpulan Ikram to look at “all areas” not handled by the Public Works Department.

On another matter, Fadillah said some RM383.6mil was set aside for the Works Ministry to repair roads and areas damaged by the floods last December.

He said some RM173mil was to be spent on flood-hit roads and RM40mil on slopes this year alone.

To a question, he said it was hard to tell which areas would be heavily hit by the monsoon rains by the end of this year.

“Previously (in 2006) when everyone was preparing for the east coast, suddenly a big thing (flood) happened in Johor that was never expected,” he said.

On the possibility of new toll rates, Fadillah declined to comment and told reporters to “wait for the announcement.”