KUCHING, Sept 6 — The Works Ministry said today that construction of the Sarawak’s side of the Pan Borneo Highway is costly as 70 per cent of about the RM12 billion cost will be spent on building the stretches that pass through peat soil.

Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said as much as RM40 million will be spent on one kilometre of road passing through peat soil.

"You want to build standard roads on peat soil and are not bumpy, you have to do a lot piling and excavation works,” he told reporters after opening a Conference Towards Sustainable and Resilience Construction in Malaysia here.

Therefore, he said, road construction is more expensive in Sarawak than in the peninsula or Sabah.

Fadillah said more than 60 per cent of about 1,000km of the Sarawak’s stretch of the highway will be built passing through the peat soil.

"Unlike in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah, Sarawak has a large areas of peat soil,” he said, adding that the peat soil in Sarawak is more than one metre deep.

He said the Works Ministry needs to find good solutions to build roads on peat soil so it is less bumpy and at the same time, does not affect the environment.

"We need to find a balance between the need to build the road on peat soil with the need to maintain the environment,” he said.

Earlier at the opening of the conference, Fadillah launched Centre of Excellence on Peat Soils (CoPS) with Universiti Sarawak Malaysia (UNIMAS) as the secretariat.

He said CoPS, mooted by the ministry, will act as a one-stop centre for researchers on peat soil and industry players as a reference centre.

He added that the setting up of the centre is most appropriate as out of Sarawak’s total land mass of 124,450 square kilometres, some 16,500 square kilometres is peat soil.

The construction of the Pan Borneo Highway (about 1,000 km in Sarawak, 730 km in Sabah) would be fast-tracked under a public-private-partnership implementation model, with total cost estimated at RM27 billion.

Sarawak has been allocated with RM16.5 billion for the cost of building its stretch of the highway.

The highway is expected to bring economic benefits to the region.

According to a government study of Peninsular Malaysia’s North South Expressway, highway construction induces a multiplier effect of four times to the economy.