Naim gets final package worth RM19m of Bengoh dam project

KUCHING: Naim Holdings Bhd has been awarded the fourth and final package of Bengoh dam project in Penrissen near here, bringing the total contracts the company secured to nearly RM570mil.

The fourth package, worth RM19mil, is for the construction of 204 detached houses for some 1,500 villagers from four Bidayuh settlements who would be relocated before the dam was impounded.


Works for the infrastructure package are progressing well and it will be ready in three months. The dam’s impoundment ... would take nine months. - RICKY KHO
The settlements, which are all inaccessible by road with the furthest to take eight hours by foot to reach from the nearest Jalan Daru, off Jalan Puncak Borneo, would be submerged in water when the dam reservoir is flooded.

The new houses are expected to be ready in a year's time. Sarawak Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan performed the earthbreaking ceremony for the housing project recently.

The RM310mil dam had been completed about 18 months ago. The second package is for the construction of the RM70mil Sematang-Skio Road that will provide access to the resettlement scheme.

Contract for the third package, worth RM168.8mil, involves the design and development of basic infrastructure, including a road system for the housing area and agriculture land, water and electricity supplies, for the scheme, located about 43km from the city.

The project is undertaken by wholly-owned subsidiary Naim Engineering Sdn Bhd.

Naim corporate services and human resource senior director Ricky Kho said the Sematang-Skio Road access road was near completion.

“Works for the infrastructure package areprogressing well and it will be ready in three months,” he told StarBiz.

The dam, which is 63m tall and 267m long, is designed to secure increasing raw water needs for a greater Kuching and Samarahan up to 2030.

The Kuching Water Board now draws its raw water from Sarawak River.

A lake with a surface area of about 10 sq km will be created when the dam is impounded. The dam reservoir could store some 144 million cu m of water.

Bengoh dam is the second in Malaysia built using the roller compacted concrete technology.

Kho said the “dam's impoundment, which had been delayed by the relocation of the villagers, would take nine months.”

The Sarawak government will compensate the villagers for moving out from their ancestral homeland. They will be given agriculture land for farming activities.

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