Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said the new road had been proposed to link the roundabout near SK St Anthony crossing the former Bintulu airport runway towards Jalan Law Geok Soon.

"This will be part of the efforts of BDA to improve the road system in the town centre which had been experiencing increasing volume of traffic over the years," he said when contacted on Monday.

Following this proposal, BDA also suggested for the main entrance to SK St Anthony to be shifted to face the town
centre with ample parking bays to be created for the convenience of parents when picking up or sending their children to the school.

In addition BDA had also planned to implement one-way system to improve traffic flow that would see the present two lanes
to be increased to either three or four in certain parts within the town centre.

Under this proposal, the amendments would occur at Jalan Keppel and Jalan Abang Galau that would cater for traffic coming in to the town centre, while the traffic system at Jalan Masjid and Jalan Main Road would be converted for traffic outflow.

BDA had also assured Tiong that the increment in the number of traffic lanes would not interfere with the available parking spaces, but instead would create more places through conversion of parallel parking to diagonal parking bays.

Aware of public concerns to cross the road once the system being implemented, he said BDA had also been asked to designate pedestrian crossing points in the affected roads or to consider building overhead bridges where ever possible.

Better pedestrian walkways had also been considered to be implemented as additional facilities incorporated in the project.

Works towards implementing the system had started since earlier this year and according to him, BDA had planned to accomplish the project within this year.

He acknowledged that certain disruptions were inevitable during the course of the project and requested for public understanding and cooperation to ensure smooth implementation of the system.

"We need to adopt to this system as it is inevitable after considering the growing number of population, as well as the growing number of vehicles in Bintulu now," he said, while assuring that BDA had always been open to ideas from the public to improve the town here.