ALOR GAJAH, Jan 24 — The government has suffered losses of RM185 million in road damage in the first phase of floods in Kelantan and Terengganu early this month, says Public Works Department (PWD) director-general Datuk Seri Dr Roslan Md Taha.

He said the losses, however, only involved the cost of repairs for normal roads and the amount did not include the cost of major repairs such as reconstructing collapsed slopes.

"The amount of losses was expected to rise as floods are now entering the second and third phases and affecting the west coast states, such as Perak and Johor.

"The authorities involved are prepared for the second phase and we are still identifying the roads impassable to traffic for updates,” he told reporters here today.

Earlier he opened the PWD Centre of Excellence for Engineering and Technology (CREaTE) at Simpang Ampat here.

Commenting further, Roslan said there was no special allocations to repair damage in the second phase floods but the PWD had sought an overall allocation of RM400 million for road maintenance and repair this year, including for damages due to floods.

"The overall damage due to floods in the country would only be known after a full report on the disaster was completed by all district engineers and state PWD.

"A full report on the total road damage would be sent to the federal government to seek supplementary allocations if necessary,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the establishment of CREaTE as research centre to conduct research and development programmes on bridges since Sept 1 last year was the right move.

"CREaTE has various facilities including accommodation, gymnasium, football field and research laboratory. To date, nine research projects have been carried out,” he said. — Bernama