Bentong is the town that I lived in for two years a long time ago.
During that time I was working as an employee of Sato Kogyo Co Ltd, the Japanese contractor responsible for the construction of the Kuala Lumpur - Karak Highway.
Before the Karak Highway the road from KL to Bentong was a just a narrow two-lane road that twisted and turned as it climbed up and down steep hill slides, much like the steep, narrow and windy hill road to the Cameron Highlands.
Although I was just an ordinary employee I was among the many who bear witness to the construction of this important highway.
Bentong is also the birth place and home town of my wife. I never knew nor met my wife during the two years that I was living there. By a strange twist of fate It was in Klang after my Bentong stint had ended where I met a Bentong girl who was to become my future wife.
In those days when I was working there Bentong was just a sleepy hollow of a town. Today the traffic in the town is so dense that you will consider yourself lucky to find a box to park your car without driving around the town more than a few times.
The construction of the KL-Karak Highway has brought tremendous development to the town. Along with development the highway also brought a huge surge of traffic volume bound for Gua Musang and Kota Bahru in the East Coast that passes through the the heart of the town. Hence the serous traffic congestion during weekends and public holidays.
Because I have many relatives from my wife's family who are living in Bentong I am a regular visitor to this town. Today I and my wife came here to attend the wedding dinner of the son of a brother-in-law on Sunday.
Each time I come here I get the impression that the town is suffocating from an ever increasing traffic gridlock of East Coast bound traffic. If nothing is done to construct a bypass to divert the Easr Coast bound traffic I won't be surprised that in a couple of years time one will see a complete lockdown of the town by traffic congestion.
No comments:
Post a Comment