Baleh Bridge to be completed by month end

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The miring ceremony in progress.

The miring ceremony in progress.

The topping up ceremony in progress.

The topping up ceremony in progress.

KAPIT: The RM78 million Baleh Bridge will be completed by the end of this month.

Baleh assemblyman cum Minister of Land Development Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing said this infrastructure project represented a historic one for the people as they would no longer be divided by the Baleh River.

“All this while, it has been very difficult for the people as they depend on the river to move around,” he said at the bridge’s topping-up ceremony yesterday.

Masing told those present that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem flew over Baleh River and Mujong River on Tuesday, after a function in Kapit, to see for himself the challenges faced by rural folk around the area.

His announcement of an allocation of RM35 million to build Mujong Bridge was timely, Masing said.

Once work on Baleh Bridge, which took 30 months to build, is wrapped up, focus would turn to building Mujong Bridge, followed by a road from Mujong to Nanga Antawau, costing RM1.4 billion.

Public Works Department’s regional manager John Aten, who gave a briefing on the project, said workers were now working on the parapet on both sides of the bridge and pre-mix tar-sealing to complete the bridge project by the end of this month.

This bridge will link the recently completed Nanga Melukun/ Nanga Mujong Road on the southern bank of Baleh River to the proposed 73km access road to the proposed Baleh hydroelectric dam project in Putai, Baleh.

Among those present were Deputy Minister Regional and Rural Development Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi; political secretaries to the chief minister, Menjang Renggi, Tengku Geruna and Jefferson JamitUnyat; Kapit District Council Walikota Philimon Nuing and Kapit Resident Fedrick John George.