PETALING JAYA: The country's transport infrastructure is a work in progress with goals to be achieved in stages, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
The Transport Minister said that he would not be satisfied until the ministry has accomplished all its goals set up for the country's transport infrastructure.
“I can't say we are satisfied until we have achieved what we have sought out to accomplish. We have National Transport Policy (NTP) 2019 -2030 which, among its contents, states that we want to build up our transport infrastructure while also spurring the economy.
"In this context, we still have plenty to do to finish the infrastructure that is being built and in the planning stages to be built," he said this in an interview with veteran journalist Tan Sri Johan Jaafar, organised by Sinar Harian.
Citing the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) as an example, he said that MRT 2 will be fully operational in seven months.
"Now there's only 12 stations, and a length of 17.5km but the full (MRT 2) is 57.7km with a total of 36 stations. Then we can see a more complete rail system connecting Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya.
"And there's plenty more like MRT3. Just the planning of our rail system alone, there is plenty more to do and this needs time and to be done in phases," he said.
Speaking on the constant traffic jams in the city, Dr Wee said that public transportation alone will not solve the issue.
"There isn't just one factor. We have to also look at car ownership and in the past we encouraged people to buy cars because of our national carmaker.
"The addition of roads is one of the efforts to ease traffic, but at the same time if we do not integrate our public transportation, then it still fails. For example, if we encourage people to not drive their cars we have to provide services like 'park and ride' and provide places to put their cars," he said.
He added that less than 1.5% of logistics are being transported via the rail system.
"Some countries are at 10%. Doing this will also reduce traffic on the road," he said.
