Sarawak’ to have

By STEPHEN THEN he told reporters after being briefed on the project by rep- : Sarawakwill soonearn resentativesof developerEk- the distinction of being the ran Bhd. statewith the mostnumber of Taib said the state govern- of international stan- ment would also in&e Dr dard. Mahathir to declareopen the It will have three such air- new Miri . ports operating in , Ekran Bhd executive chair- and Miri. man Tan Sri Tine Pek Khiine. The expansion who accompani;d Taib, saz project to turn it into an inter- the was also nationalairport is expectedto completed a year ahead of , be completedin June, a year schedule. aheadof schedule. “The Bintulu project costs It will complementthe Kuc- RM385miIwhile the Miri pro- hing InternationalAirport and ject will cost RM220mi1,”he the new Bintulu Airport, sche- said. duled to be openedby Prime He added that the Bintulu R Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maha- project cost more becauseit thir Mohamadlater this month. involved a totally new struc- Total cost for the Bintulu ture. and Miri airport projects is Ekran Bhd is the developer RM600mil. for the Miri and Bintulu air- ChiefMinister Tan Sri Abdul port projects. Taib Mahmud, who inspected Deputy Chief the Miri Airport expansionpro- Minister Tan Sri Dr George ject yesterday, was pleased Chan, who is also state Fina- with the work progress. nce. Public Utilities and “Work is proceedingsmoot- Industrial DevelopmentMini- \ hly and the airport will be ster, saidnext year wouldbe a ready in time for Sarawak to hectic one for Sarawak in celebrateits 40th year of inde- terms of infrastructure pro- pendenceas part of ,” jects. ,