The works ministry, through the public works department will conduct pothole repairs through the Aku Janji Zero Potholes (“I Promise Zero Potholes”) campaign that was reintroduced last July, Bernama reported.
The works ministry said in a statement that the previous Aku Janji Zero Potholes campaign that ran from 2016 to 2018 aimed to strengthen the ministry’s commitment towards the maintenance of roads in the country.
“Under this campaign, pothole repairs will be done within 24 hours of its discovery or complaints and in three days for permanent repairs as stated in the Federal Road Maintenance contract,” said the statement, which defined pothole damage as holes with diameters ranging from 200 mm to 1,000 mm.
We have been here before. Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) said in February 2016 that the city will be pothole-free by 2017, and followed up a week later to say that the ministry had set a key performance indicator to ensure repairs of potholes or simple damages are acted on within 24 hours.
Major or complicated damages will be acted upon within 14 days of receiving a report, or not more than one year for other damages, it said at the time. The same target was set for Johor in May that year.
Potholes of diameters less than 200 mm will be filled immediately, though these will not involve cutting. Holes that are 1,000 mm in diameter will require road cutting before the holes are filled, the latest statement said. “If the dimension of the hole exceeds 1,000 mm, then it needs to be considered as pavement failure,” it said.
The ministry had allocated RM1.09 billion for the maintenance of federal roads throughout the country, including for electricity, traffic lights and street lamp bills for 2021, according to its statement. RM100 million in allocations for the implementation of ‘weight in motion’ at federal roads have been approved by the government through the 2021 Budget, it said.
“The ministry will cooperate with the Transport Ministry to ensure that road surfaces are not easily damaged due to overloading of vehicles,” the statement read.
A total of 4,091 complaints regarding public infrastructure were received by the ministry and the public works department as of November 30, and of these, 1,473 were for damaged roads. All complaints have been processed and action has been taken by the JKR, according to the statement.
Last year, almost 200,000 potholes were found and repaired through monitoring and patrols by PWD in 2019 while 64,000 potholes were recorded with action taken as of last June, it also said.
The issue of damaged roads returned to the scrutiny of the public after science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin was injured in a bicycle crash, which resulted from loss of control after hitting a pothole in the road.
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