ISKANDAR PUTERI, May 16 — There are still 979 of the 2,642 damaged road locations identified in Johor in the last two years which have not been repaired.

State Public Works, Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said 1,075 damaged road locations were repaired last year and another 588 locations will be repaired this year.

"Insya-Allah, this momentum has already been felt in some areas, for example, the Jalan Kota Tinggi-Mersing and the Pasir Gudang Highway,” he said when winding up the debate at the state assembly sitting, today.

Mohamad Fazli said that the issue of a lack of personnel for monitoring purposes is always a challenge for the state government.

He added that the task is crucial in terms of monitoring the quality of work, material specifications, standard operating procedures (SOP) and the completion period of a project.

"To address this, a consultant was appointed to represent the state government, to monitor all these aspects,” he said.

Regarding the frequent flash floods in the state, Mohamad Fazli said that the state Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), Public Works Department (PWD) and Local Authorities (PBT) have identified the locations or hotspots of the floods.

"I have proposed that drainage maintenance work should not be carried out in one go, and should be done as often as possible, especially for flood hotspot areas,” he said.

He said that coordination is also important because the upgrade work needs to be done comprehensively so that there is no bottleneck due to different sizes of drainage and not being able to accommodate excess water capacity.

Meanwhile, the state Housing and Local Government Committee chairman, Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor, said that 117 flood hotspots have been identified statewide.

He said that the total number of flood hotspot areas for the Greater JB PBT is 50 areas while the remaining 67 areas involve other PBT.

"(For Greater JB PBT), 23 flood hotspots identified in Johor Baru City Council; Iskandar Puteri City Council (four), Pasir Gudang City Council (16) and Kulai Municipal Council (seven),” he said. — Bernama