Bukit Kinyau, Gunong Air to be connected to power grid soon
KUCHING: Villagers of Bukit Kinyau and Gunong Air, near Tanjung Manis can look forward to have their power supply connected to the grid by February this year as the work to install submarine cable crossing Rejang River has begun on Thursday.
Bukit Kinyau PBB chief Mohammad Jamalludin Man said the work was expected to be completed by the end of January, but was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.
“The contractor received the cables late from Japan and had to modify the ship used for the submarine cable installation work,” he said.
Furthermore, the work can only be carried out during King Tide as the ship is quite big .
“We hope the villagers can bear with us or a while, as the workers are doing their best to get the job done in a very challenging situation,” he added.
Mohammad thanked Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment DatuLen Talif Salleh, who is Kuala Rajang assemblyman, for initiating the project.
He said the project will benefit some 60 houses in Bukit Kinyau village, one of the oldest settlements that is still cut off from mainland Sarikei.
“We still use speedboat or express boat to go to Sarikei as the road construction to link Sarikei and Tanjung Manis is still shelved,” he said.
Mohammad said the cable installation work is expected to be completed in February.
“The cable installation will start from the estuary of Semaring River, to Timorgreen factory before going to Bukit Kinyau covering 1.5km. So far, it has been going on smoothly.”
When asked about the villagers’ wish for 2018, Mohammad said they hope their elected representative will help them to speed up the issuance of their land titles.
“We wish to record our appreciation to the government for doing the survey work and hopefully we will get our grant soon,” he said.