Malaysia To Have 75 Per Cent 3-Star Roads By 2020 - Minister Liow

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 (Bernama) -- The Transport Ministry of Malaysia and other stakeholders are committed to elevating the standard of 75 per cent of Malaysia's road infrastructure to at least 3-star performance throughout high volume road networks by 2020. Its minister Liow Tiong Lai said this was in line with the objectives of the Road Safety Plan of Malaysia 2014-2020, which aims at reducing accident risks. "We have a lot of roads with 3-star rating and above and I have said before that Malaysian roads are well planned. "We are confident that we can achieve the target because we are quite happy with the new programme that was launched today (Friday) to improve road safety," he told a press conference after witnessing the signing of a Sponsorship Agreement between Shell and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) here, Friday. The signing was done by Shell Malaysia chairman Iain Lo, its Managing Director Azman Ismail and MIROS chairman Lee Lam Thye and its Director-General Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon. At the event, Liow also launched the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), a programme that will serve as a supplementary tool to strengthen existing road safety audit practices and black spot programmes. Its role in road safety intervention is to eliminate high-risk roads in the country. With proven results, this programme has been adopted by more than 70 countries worldwide. Meanwhile, Iain said that Shell Malaysia welcomed MIROS's effort to improve road safety standards by using this assessment programme and most importantly to share this information with road users so that they could always be more careful. --BERNAMA