SANDAKAN, Feb 21 — Sandakan is on the right track towards achieving city status by next year, said Housing and Local Government (KPKT) Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

She said Sandakan was now fulfilling a certain set of criteria to achieve the status and would be the second city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu.

"The requirement for an area to be upgraded as a city is to have an income of at least RM100 million and a population of over 500,000 people.

"To date, the population of Sandakan has exceeded 500,000 while the earnings have reached RM80 million,” she told reporters after visiting the Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA) housing project site here today.

Zuraida also urged the Sandakan Municipal Council (MPS) to draw up a proposal towards making Sandakan a city under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

In another development, Zuraida said an allocation of RM3.2 million had been approved for upgrading works of various facilities in Sandakan.

"Of the total, RM1 million each for the upgrading of Sungai Manila People’s Housing Programme (PPR) and Kim Fung market.

"While RM1.2 million to set up state legislative assembly service centres in six constituencies under the MPS administration, namely Tanjung Papat, Elopura, Karamunting, Sekong, Gum-Gum, and Sungai Sibuga,” she added.

Another RM1 million was also approved for construction consultation of a new market in Batu 3, which involved a total cost of RM5 million, she said. — Bernama