KUALA TERENGGANU: All it will take is just a 10-minute drive from the Kuala Terengganu City Centre (KTCC) to the Sultan Mahmud Airport, once the coastal highway is ready.
To the tune of an estimated RM60 million, the 6.8km highway will connect KTCC in Tanjung, past the 632m drawbridge across the southern and northern banks of Sungai Terengganu, to Seberang Takir, then to Teluk Ketapang and finally, to the airport.
The highway will ease congestion at the Sultan Mahmud Bridge across Sungai Terengganu, which slows traffic to about 30 minutes to get to the airport from the city.
The RM30 million Package One stretches 3.8km from Jalan Ketapang Pantai to Muara Utara, is expected to be completed by August, while the RM30 million Package Two is a 3km stretch from Muara Selatan to KTCC in Tanjung, which is scheduled to open by April next year.
The drawbridge connecting Muara Utara with Muara Selatan is expected to be completed by June.
Announcing this, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman said the coastal highway was part of the ambitious RM4.5 billion mixed development of KTCC, which would be the iconic and futuristic landmark for the dynamic and developed heritage waterfront city.
“When completed by 2024, KTCC will consist of high-class hotel, service apartments, Soho shopping mall and a theme park, across a 12.28ha site overlooking the South China Sea.
“This will provide more than 5,000 jobs for locals and a host of business opportunities for entrepreneurs to spur the socio-economic growth of the people.
“In short, KTCC will become a residential and commercial hub, complete with facilities for housing, business, employment, recreation, healthcare and education,” said Razif at ground-breaking ceremony for the coastal highway at Muara Utara KTCC in Kampung Seberang Takir.
Present was East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) chief executive Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issace John.
Razif said parts of Seberang Takir would be upgraded with reinforced embankments.
Razif said ECERDC would ensure the necessary infrastructure was put in place to make KTCC a success.
He added that until last year, Terengganu received RM33.7 billion in private investments, creating more than 41,000 jobs and 7,500 entrepreneurial opportunities for the people.
Jebasingam said KTCC was growing as the preferred destination in the region for investors and residents as it was an ideal location to work, play and live.
“This follows the implementation of strategic projects and infrastructure, which have accelerated the socio-economic transformation of the area, while retaining the distinctive cultural and heritage features of Terengganu,” said Jebasingam.
He said under the East Coast Economic Region Master Plan 2.0, there would be key strategies to propel Terengganu’s next leap of growth, leveraging on its key economic sectors of tourism, maintenance, repair and operations, manufacturing, bio-economy and agribusiness.
“Similarly, human capital development programmes, like the Kuala Nerus Acquapolitan effort, are providing an integrated and holistic approach to improve the household income, boost the quality of life and inculcate sustainability for local fishermen.
“This programme involves a total development of fisheries’ value chain, from upstream to downstream, and will benefit 452 households of 2,000 locals and their families,” he said.
Other programmes include the Besut-Setiu Agropolitan project and East Coast Economic Region Talent Enhancement programme that has benefited 13,100 by increasing the marketability of local graduates to secure jobs.