Malaysian traffic police have expressed their welcome for the Work Ministry's move to seek special allocation from the government to build special motorcycle lanes at selected stretches nationwide, local reports said Thursday.

Malaysian Traffic Police Chief Nooryah Md Anvar said the move would help reduce fatal accidents, especially those involving motorcyclists at accident-prone spots.

Nooryah suggested the ministry give priority to building motorcycle lanes primarily on federal and state roads as these roads continue to record high number of fatal crashes during festive season.

According to statistics, since Oct. 17 when the country launched its 11th annual campaign coded "Ops Sikap XI" to reduce road accidents during the festive season, 4,262 traffic accidents were reported on federal and state roads in the country during past nine days, including 105 deaths.

Ninety one motorcyclists were among the people killed in the accidents and the figure is expected to rise before the campaign ends on Oct. 31.

Malaysian Works Minister Samy Vellu announced on Wednesday that his ministry would submit a paper to the government in two months and asked for an allocation to build more motorcycle lanes at accident-prone stretches nationwide.

The ministry reportedly had sought 136 million ringgit (36.76 million U.S. dollars to build such lanes under the Ninth Malaysia Plan but was turned down by the cabinet.

Under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, the government was said to have spent 114 million ringgit (30.81 million U.S. dollars to construct the lanes at 12 locations.

Source: Xinhua