Miri to have largest water theme park in East Malaysia

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SOMETHING NEW: An artist’s impression of the awe-inspiring water theme park.

MIRI: Prominent businessman Dato Lau Siu Wai, who helped transformed Senadin into a lively residential estate, is planning yet another mega project for Senadin – a mammoth water theme park.

His brainchild will be the first of its kind and the largest theme park in East Malaysia.

Sprawling over 500 acres not far away from Curtin University and Curtin Water, it will exceed Sunway Lagoon in terms of size.

On the drawing board are giant waterslides, water tubes, swimming and wading pools.

Miri Housing Group chairman Lau, who has built more than 10,000 houses here over the years, said the proposed project would not just be a theme park but a new resort township of sorts because it would feature two hotels, six blocks of condominium towers, a commercial centre, and a mega mall boasting two million square feet of retail space.

The floor space of the proposed mega mall would be larger than the current leader here – Bintang Megamall, owned by Miri Housing.

Lau told thesundaypost recently that this mammoth project would cost about RM1 billion and it would be developed in three phases.

Phase I is slated to kick-off after Chinese New Year next year, and the whole three phases are scheduled to be completed in five years time.

“There will also be an old folk health care centre thrown in,” he said.

Once completed, this project will transform Miri, particularly Senadin, into the ‘Venice of the East’, complete with lakes and water canals for canoes and small boats to ply all the way to the South China Sea.

Lau envisioned that this place would eventually become the hub for water sports, kayaking, and canoeing activities.