Works Minister : 34 homes badly damaged by floods at Sungai Lui to be replaced

HULU LANGAT -- A total of 34 residences in Sungai Lui, here, that were badly damaged by the recent floods will be replaced with new houses under the Works Ministry’s Rumah Kekal Banjir (RKB) assistance.

Senior Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusuf said the initiative was provided free of charge to owners of homes that were badly damaged, including those that were swept away by floodwaters.

He said there were two house designs suggested and subject to final approval, ground level housing and housing on stilts.

"A house on stilts cost RM70,000 while a ground level house costs RM56,000. The house will be 660 square feet with three rooms, a bathroom, a living room and a dining area," he said after inspecting the construction of the Bailey bridge near Batu 19, Sungai Lui on Monday (Jan 3).

Fadillah said all flood victims who qualified for the assistance had been identified by local community leaders and verified by the district office.

He said the new houses would be built on land owned by the flood victims and its construction would depend on discussions with the land owner.

"The government is prepared to implement it, it’s only from the point of administration and the timing will depend on negotiations with the land owner.

"If they agree with this concept, then the Public Works Department (PWD) will receive the allocation and we will carry out the next process, including appointing a contractor,” he said.

He added that the assistance would be expanded to other states, including Pahang and Kelantan that have been hit by floods but would be in accordance with current needs if the disaster damaged a lot of homes severely.

On the Bailey bridge, Fadillah said the PWD was requesting allocation from the government to add seven more bridge sets if another severe flood occurs and causes the bridge to collapse.

A Bailey bridge is a pre-fabricated truss bridge that is relatively fast to set up and does not require any special tools to assemble.

"If a big flood hits and the bridge collapses, we (PWD) do not have enough Bailey bridges stocked up currently.

"So if we go by our existing stocks, we have only four sets on standby," he said, adding the cost of constructing a Bailey bridge reached up to RM30mil.

Besides that, he said 895 locations, including roads, bridges and slops were affected by floods throughout the Peninsula since Dec 18.

"Out of the total, 802 locations have been cleaned, meaning there are roads that have reopened, either both lanes or at least one lane," he added.

He said that the ministry estimated that almost RM970mil were allocated for clean up and restoration of infrastructure affected by the floods. - Bernama