SMC: Open space at Jln Jerrwit to serve as car park for haemodialysis centre

SIBU (Oct 31): The open space near St John’s Ambulance Malaysia (SJAM) haemodialysis centre at Jalan Jerrwit here will be turned into parking spaces, said Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting.

The project’s funding, he said, had been approved and would be carried out under Bukit Assek’s Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) project.

“We will make a car park there for the haemodialysis patients so that they do not have to park at the road side which is very dangerous,” he said when met during SMC’s full council meeting here yesterday.

Adding on, he said the council would arrange for land clearing work in another two weeks’ time, and after their meeting the following week.

According to him, the open space is now partially grown by trees, planted by the residents there and that this would require the council to appoint a contractor to clear the land before it could be turned into parking lots.

On another note, Ting said the council has introduced a cashless parking system at its multi-storey car park here starting this month.

This ticketless and cashless system, he added, would increase efficiency and reduce costs as there is no need to print and distribute physical parking coupons which can cost about RM700,000 a year.

“We will be able to invest more on smart parking technology if we are able to reduce our budget for physical parking coupons, and this is to benefit the people,” he said.

SMC’s full council meeting yesterday also witnessed the swearing-in of a newly appointed councillor Teo Choon Teck.