JOHOR BARU: The Federal Government has approved a RM100mil allocation to Johor for a water transfer project to channel raw water to the Sungai Layang dam in Pasir Gudang here.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also the Finance Minister, said the state government would fund the project and the amount would be offset against the RM300mil that the state owed the Federal Government. Under the project, the state government hopes to build pipes from the Air Mentah Rapid (Pamer) project to the Sungai Layang dam.
The Pamer project involves a 77km pipeline from Sungai Seluyut in Kota Tinggi to Pengerang for the oil and gas needs in the area. However, as the project is not fully operational in Pengerang, the state hopes to build additional pipelines to divert the water to the Sungai Layang dam.
More than 450,000 consumers are affected by water shortage every year, especially during the dry spells, and scheduled water supply had to be carried out. Last year, the water crisis went on for four months.
On the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project to improve public transportation in Johor Baru, Najib said the Government needed more time to study the matter as it involved huge subsidies.
“At the moment, we are having quite a big budget deficit,” he said.
Najib also said the Government would continue to expand the Urban Transformation Centres (UTC) as more than 27.4 million transactions nationwide have been conducted since the project started in 2012.
There are now 10 UTCs nationwide. The next locations will be in Kelantan, Sibu, Miri, Perlis and Negri Sembilan.
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