PAPAR - The airport relocation to Kimanis is expected to bring rapid development and job opportunities to the people around Kimanis especially in the Bongawan constituency.
However, Bongawan assemblyman Dr Daud Yusof said that for now, there is no need for the government to move the airport to Kimanis because the existing Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) can still accommodate the arrival of tourists in Sabah so far.
"For me, in the near future, we don't need to because KKIA can still accommodate, but as preparations for the future, I think it is important because it is not only to generate income for the people of the Bongawan state assembly, but also to make new changes when the airport is built in this area.
"Automatically, development will kick in rapidly and I am confident that one day, the Kimanis area will become a new city.
"In fact, we have seen that the employment vacancy will give opportunities to the surrounding residents to work," he told reporters after a 'gotong royong' event at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Pekan Bongawan here on Sunday.
Dr Daud said so far, he has not yet been briefed on when the relocation or construction of the airport will kick start.
However, he said although there was no decision on the implementation yet, a briefing session needs to be held for the residents especially in Bongawan.
"Actually, it is important to the community in this state assembly area because most of the land that may be taken over is owned by the villagers where some of them had already built houses or planted agricultural products as a source of income.
"If they are not briefed and the community does not understand this situation, it will lead to protests later. So we have to discuss with our community, with the landowners so that when this happens, (it is worried that) the people are dissatisfied about compensation and so on," he said.
Prior to that, at last year's state assembly session, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor was reported to have said that the state government did not issue any financial costs to Berjaya Land Berhad (BLB) which conducted a detailed study on the proposed development of the new KKIA in Kimanis.