Basic Maintenance Lacking in Johor Bahru

A few days after the story broke of the old man and his mission to repair JB’s numerous pot-holes, we have the city mayor advising motorists to be patient as “it is a matter of time before it is fixed.”

Somehow one gets the impression that that old man has more urgency and commitment in getting the job done.

To me it is definitely a matter of time before someone gets killed on account of those pot-holes some of which are months old.

Surely there is more than one contractor in Johor who can repair roads? Instead of appointing just one contractor, they should appoint three or four companies to do the job so that motorists can have proper roads to drive on.

An allocation of RM800,000 to repair pot-holes indicates that proper planning is lacking in the city council. It would seem more economical for the council to employ perhaps a small crew of say five workers at say RM2000 per month or RM120,000 per year whose job is to undertake continuous repairs of pot-holes as soon as they appear.

Add another RM100,000 for materials and RM50,000 for equipment hire and the annual budget would be about RM350,000.

Of course there will be one lucrative contract less to award. Come to think about it – maybe that old man can be part of the solution. He is doing this work for free. All we need are 20 more dedicated people like him and we pay them RM500 per month to look after designated areas. That will be the end of pot-holes in JB.