Miri Port Authority
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'Commercial shipping' utilizing Miri as a port goes back to as early as when Miri was merely a fishing village. Being the site of the first discovery of oil in Borneo in 1910 quickened the business, pace and progress of Miri via the use of its port, establishing it to be an important and leading port for the majority of the 20th century in the region for oil and then timber industries.
Previously the Miri port was located at Miri river directly in front of the town area (near River Road), as such this limits vessel sizes into the port due to the notorious sand bar and the shallow depth of the Miri River mouth. There was a need for Miri to have a port at least beyond eight metres deep, and thus the new port was chosen at a site upriver at Baram, about 30 kilometers from the original site, and has been operational since its completion in 1998.
The port with its futuristic building design has facilities that consisted of a 254-foot berth length with general cargo handling and container service, while stevedoring services is provided by private sector, and container handling is also provided by private contractor using conventional cargo handling equipment.
The port boasts four units of transit shed with floor area of over twenty-thousand square foot area and over a ten-thousand square foot of open storage area which is under constant surveillance with a security force.
The new port is not without its problems however, as even though the original specification required more than a depth of eight meters, the Baram River mouth can also reduce in depth to as low as only one meter deep during low tide in certain conditions, which meant that, once again, the bigger vessels were unable to dock at the facility without major upgrades or deepening of the river. The notorious shallow invisible sandbar monsters haunt the ship captains and threatens shipping to seemingly no end.
Miri Port Authority
Jalan Miri Port,
Kuala Baram Industrial Estate,
Kuala Baram,
Sarawak
Phone: +6 085-609009
The Miri Public Swimming Pool, open to public in the 1980s features a competition sized 50 meter length pool with diving platforms, along with the usual kiddie pool.
Also known as "America Road", "Reversed Road", "Opposite Driving Road" by the locals, the road where we drive on the left instead of the right, and is rightly a fairly controversial subject of contention regarding its road planning.
Miri has long been known for its exotic national parks and caves, its under water world is now gaining attention of scuba divers ever since the untouched coral reefs were discovered in recent years.