MIRI, April 30 — The Sarawak government must solve the long-standing problems that caused the Miri Port not to be fully utilised until today as the waterways are too shallow for bigger vessels.
PKR Miri Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Michael Teo Yu Keng said presently the waterways are less than two-metre deep and only reaches five-metre deep during the high tide.
“It is not cost effective to use Bintulu Port for the loading as well as unloading jobs of goods which are meant to be transported to Miri that resulted in high transportation costs and the costs are then passed on to consumers here,” he said in a news conference here today.
For the record, Bintulu is more than 200km or three-hour drive by road from here using the coastal road.
Teo said, since Miri Port was being managed by Miri Port Authority which was under the purview of the Sarawak government, it was high time for the state government to act fast by resolving the issue as soon as possible.
He said the federal government had conducted the study on the dredging of the waterways around Kuala Baram in 2012 and had recommended the need to deepen the waterways to eight metres and a width of 170 metres.
In addition, he said, the study had been submitted to the state government for consideration and implementation but it had not being done up until now.
“Miri Port cannot be fully utilised and cannot function to serve the needs of the shipping industry in Miri,” he said.
On another development, he said, the federal government had approved RM421 million for dredging works to be done for rivers in Sarawak in 2019. — Bernama
