BINTULU: The ongoing Pan Borneo Highway project will not only facilitate road users in Sarawak as the positive impact of the project’s development will also see the construction of a new mosque at Batu 36, Jalan Bintulu-Miri.
The reason being that the 25-year-old Surau Darul Falah in Kampung Wawasan Jaya has to be demolished to make way for the highway project.
Kampung Wawasan Jaya village head Bisnoor Mohamad Noor, 74, when met by Bernama, said following discussions with the local residents, the Sarawak Islamic Religious Council and the District Office, it was agreed that a new mosque would be built to replace the surau.
“I have endowed a one-acre piece of land to build the mosque,” he said, adding that RM311,000 in compensation from the demolition of the surau would be used to cover the cost of building the new mosque, estimated at RM650,000, with the remaining to be borne by the Sarawak Islamic Religious Department.
The story on Bisnoor’s contribution of a piece of land to build the mosque also went viral on the social media with generous netizens donating for the mosque construction.
“We received about RM30,000 in public donations which will also be used to cover the cost of building the mosque,” said Bisnoor, who is responsible for opening the village in 1986.
He said the new mosque would serve not only benefit the Muslim community in Kampung Wawasan Jaya , but also from Kampung Wawasan Rajawali and the surrounding areas, as well as travellers on the Pan Borneo Highway.
“The mosque, which is designed by my son, Abdul Kadir, who is an architect, can accommodate a congregation of 1,700 people at one time,” he said, adding that construction of the mosque would be ready by year end.
He said the mosque would also have a hall, as well as sales booth which would be leased out to the public to generate income, including for the mosque maintenance.
The highway, regarded the biggest engineering project in Borneo, wil stretch more than 2,000 kilometres from Teluk Melano in the south-west of Sarawak, close to the Indonesian border, to the north-east through the major towns of Sarawak and ends in the town of Serudong in Sabah. — Bernama