Works on road, parking spaces at Mt Serembu ready to kick off, assures rep
KUCHING: Upgrading works on the road leading to Mount Serembu and the widening of the parking spaces at the foot of the mountain should commence at any time now, assures Serembu assemblyman Miro Simuh.
According to him, a contract worth RM200,000 has been awarded and the project should reach completion within two months after works begin.
It is learnt that this road-parking space project is among 23 projects that have been approved under his rural transformation programme ( RTP) allocation.
“So far, only two projects, including this one, have been awarded and ready to commence this year. The rest have yet to kick off,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday, adding that 24 projects were approved and implemented in Serembu last year, of which about 80 per cent had reached completion.
Miro regarded Mount Serembu as being ‘ very important’ to the local people as it was where the earliest settlement of the Serumbu Bidayuhs stood some 300 years ago.
It is said that the ‘White Rajah’ Sir James Brooke, while on a working visit to Siniawan and Bau, was captivated by the Bidayuh longhouses on the mountain top facing Siniawan.
Between 1848 and 1850 with the help of the local villagers, he built a cottage at Bung Muan located just above the settlement to escape the heat of Kuching.
One of Brooke’s friends Alfred Russel Wallace, whom he met in Singapore, was invited to visit Sarawak in 1853 – Wallace ended up spending 14 months here, longer than at any other places he visited across the Malay Archipelago.
Wallace was offered the use of Brooke’s bungalow ‘Peninjau’ on the summit ridge of Bukit Peninjau. As a renowned naturalist, he made many major findings related to the forest in Bukit Peninjau.
Miro said the communities around the area wanted to develop the mountain into an eco-park and a tourism area, describing the mountain as ‘very beautiful’, having a trek to the summit and being just behind Siniawan town, which is now a popular tourist destination.
He said tourists coming to Siniawan could also proceed to Mount Serembu to see the historical site and the beautiful scenery there.
“We are going to develop the basic facilities there in stages without disturbing the natural features along the trek and around the area.
“There is going to be no physical development in the mountain area because we want visitors to really interact with nature,” he said.