Putatan Benefits From KK's Development

KOTA KINABALU, July 16 (Bernama) -- The development of Kota Kinabalu has brought rapid development to Putatan to the point of elevating it to full district status on March 1, 2007.

The location of Putatan, not far from the city centre, also makes it the choice of residents from other districts to live after migrating to work in Kota Kinabalu.

"We are very fortunate as Putatan developed due to development around it, including the building of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport and the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway that crosses the district.

"These contributed to the development planning in terms of the economy, tourism, housing, education and infrastructure to provide amenities to the residents whose numbers are increasing and also to visitors and those who are passing through," the district officer Ag Abd Ghani Pg Yusoff told Bernama.

According to him, Putatan, which was a small town in the district of Penampang, began to expand in 1994 after a local person, Datuk Yahya Hussin, was elected as the Petugas state assemblyman.

Since then, many developers saw the potential of Putatan, which covers an area of 209.247 square kilometres, for residential and commercial projects.

"With the confidence of these developers, the town of Putatan was built. In the beginning there were 22 housing estates, now there are 50 with close to 73,000 residents.

"With the development of the housing and shops, came other infrastructure like schools, roads, tourist spots, drainage and landscaping," he said.

Ag Abd Ghani said the rapid development qualified Putatan for small district status in March 1997 and 10 years later it was given full district status.

He said Putatan was developed at a cost of RM500 million for fast-paced economic activity to prepare it for the full district status.

He said the private sector was very much interested in becoming a part of Putatan's development.

"We have two big supermarkets besides shops selling clothes, car accessories, restaurants and now there is a five-star hotel called One Place.

"Recently six 11-storey apartment blocks 2,012 units were built in the centre of Putatan and are a Putatan landmark," he said.

From the tourism angle, Ag Abd Ghani said Putatan was located near the main gateway to Kota Kinabalu that is the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

He also said the Pan Borneo Highway, used by many people from Labuan, Sarawak and Brunei, also impacted on the tourism industry in the district.

Besides that, he said Putatan also had tourism draws like the Lok Kawi Zoo, the first in Sabah; the Petagas Memorial Monument to remember the victims of the Japanese Occupation; the Tun Mustapha Memorial for the father of Sabah's independence which is located at Bukit Kuda, Kampung Ulu Putatan.

A post used to see the the moon for 1 Ramadhan and 1 Syawal at Tanjung Dumpil which was a tourism draw located by the beach.

"We have planned several projects, among them building another secondary school that is the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Petagas and expanding the Sekolah Kebangsaan Petagas.

"We also have a special education school in Kampung Ketiau," he said.

According to him, Putatan already has two schools SMK Tansau and SMK Putatan. However the two schools were not enough due to a bigger population.

"The district administration needs more schools to fulfill the needs of the parents who want their children here instead of going to Kota Kinabalu, Menggatal or other places.

"Having more schools will also reduce the burden of transportation costs," he said.

There are also plans for flood mitigation, he said.

"Recently we received allocation for flood mitigation and a drainage project is being undertaken in Kampung Petagas and Kampung Pasir Putih.

"In 2003, we received a RM3 million allocation to straighthen out Sungai Putatan for 6km and this had given an effective impact to deal with floods," he said.

-- BERNAMA