A crane used to hoist a portable cabin at the site, to serve as a temporary sentry post to the substation.
MIRI: Sarawak Energy yesterday resumed works to construct the long-overdue new Miri Town Indoor 33kV Substation, following the successful clearing of an illegal blockade at the site yesterday.
In a statement yesterday, the state-owned utility said the new substation is an extension of the existing Miri Town Substation, which is critical for the reinforcement and stabilising of power supply system of Miri’s central district and its surrounding areas.
“The project is part of Sarawak Energy’s RM1-billion investment in the Miri Power Supply Reinforcement Plan to upgrade the supply system to meet rapid expansion and rising electricity demand of the people of Miri,” it said.
Six persons were arrested yesterday for obstructing civil servants from discharging their duties, after they attempted to prevent the dismantling of the blockade.
The six are believed to be from a group claiming ancestral rights to the land on which the substation is sited on, who had been blockading the area for the past two years.
“Land claimants illegally denying access to the project site have severely delayed the project, compromising the reliability of Miri’s electricity supply and increasing the city’s risk of outages.
“Construction came to a standstill in 2017 when the claimants started staking their claims on Canada Hill and obstructed access to the substation which was targeted for commissioning in August 2018. The blockade has delayed the completion of the indoor substation and resulted in cost over-runs,” the statement added.
Land and Survey Department personnel seen removing illegal structures blocking access to the substation yesterday.
It said a legal site entry operation team comprising personnel from Sarawak Energy and its operations arm Syarikat Sesco Berhad, State Security and Enforcement Unit, Electrical Inspectorate Unit (EIU) of the Ministry of Utilities, police, General Operations Force and Land and Survey Department, was deployed to carry out clearing works after an injunction order was secured from the High Court.
“The mandatory injunction order prohibits any obstruction to the commencement of works for the Miri Indoor Substation project.”
Sarawak Energy said all actions carried out were in accordance to the law, and the facility is expected to benefit the larger part of the Miri community.
The company added it had worked with the assistance of and support from relevant authorities to reach out to the land claimants on several occasions, to explain the criticality of the substation to ensure supply reliability to the people of Miri.
“Sarawak Energy respects the rights of individuals and organisations to express themselves in a lawful manner that does not deny the larger community the right to reliable supply, as well as jeopardise the safe operations of its facilities and the safety of its personnel who are carrying out their duties,” it said.