KUALA TERENGGANU, May 12 — Lebuhraya Pantai Timur 2 Sdn Bhd, a highway concession company, is allocating RM18 million to repair the East Coast Expressway 2 (LPT2) this year.

Its General Manager, Husni Md Yusuf said the company spent about RM20 million last year to repair 18km of LPT2 over a period of nearly six months.

"We took over LPT2 from the government on July 15 last year. We gave an undertaking to the government to improve the surface of certain stretches of the expressway that may not be safe to users,” he told reporters here today.

LPT2 is a 184km dual carriageway expressway running between Jabor and Kuala Terengganu on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Husni said the company had devised a five-year plan to repair any damage on LPT2 and was identifying the affected stretches along the expressway, and was on track to achieve the target.

On complaints that many accidents had occurred on the expressway, he said nearly 80 per cent of the mishaps were due to negligence of the users themselves such as driving too fast, besides trespassing cattle.

"Since we took over, we had implemented various measures to prevent livestock from straying on LPT2. We have so far repaired 36 km of fences along the expressway and the whole repairs would cost up to RM2 million.

"What we fear most is the attitude of some unscrupulous individuals who might deliberately cut the fences to let their livestock graze along the expressway,” he said.

Husni said seven accidents occurred on LPT2 in April, but so far there no fatal accidents happened due to livestock entering the expressway.

He said the company was studying the possibility of installing electric fences along the expressway if the problem of livestock wandering on LPT2 persisted. — Bernama