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    20 August 2012| last updated at 04:29PM

    Pelagus Rapids less dangerous now due to boulder blasting works



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    KUCHING: The near completion of blasting works on boulders and protruding rocks at the Pelagus Rapids in upper Batang Rajang has reduced the danger for commercial express and boats to navigate its passageway, Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) chairman Datuk Roland Sagah said today.

     

    He said the RM9 million demolition project, which was expected to be completed next month, would enable all vessels to negotiate this particular stretch of the river, especially during the dry season, when river traffic comes to a standstill due to the low water level.
     
    "Generally I am happy because small boats can now go through the many parts of the channel cleared of boulders," he said when met at Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's Hari Raya open house here.
     
    Currently there are no roads to link Kapit to Belaga upriver, where rural folk live in 20 longhouses and mainly depend on commercial express boats plying the waterway.
     
    On ship wrecks, Sagah said lack of funds and murky water had hampered salvaging works of an estimated more than 100 ship wrecks in the river bed.
     
    He said the Euro copter helicopter that crashed into the Lingga river estuary in Sri Aman on July 20 this year, killing three passengers, also constituted a river wreckage but would only be removed pending ongoing investigations by the relevant authorities. -- BERNAMA
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