Bus to resort will boost Pahang tourism

KUANTAN: The Pahang tourism industry received a boost with the extension of the RapidKuantan bus service to the Gambang Water Park Resort here from today.

With some 3,000 daily visitors frequenting the resort 46km from Terminal Makmur, here, the new route is also expected to bring convenience to 4,000 residents in the area and some 1,500 resort employees.

Rapid Bus chief executive officer Zohari Sulaiman said the change was part of efforts to boost public transport.

"We hope the route extension will support efforts to promote the Gambang Water Park Resort as a tourist attraction in Pahang and benefit the people. "The company will also improve other routes in Kuantan by shortening travel time." He said the improvements were aimed at meeting demand.

"This is to control bus departures and arrivals at the town centre, which means we can achieve consistent bus frenquency," said Zohari, who is also Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad group director (bus division).

"For example, there are passengers from Taman Indera Sempurna who are reluctant to board Route 101 buses because of the long travel time as our services also cover the Permatang Badak and Sungai Isap residential areas."

"This initiative is part of RapidKuantan's preparation to strengthen our operation before we introduce fares on May 1," he said, adding that all bus operations would be centralised at Hentian Bandar Pasar here.

Launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Nov 30 and starting operations the following day, RapidKuantan is providing free bus services until April 30.

-nst online.