The Ferry

Back in the days before the bridge was built across the Baram River, this would have been one of the earlier ferries being used in the 1950s. Sometime we forget how transportation ministries on both sides of Brunei and Malaysia have helped to make travel convenient for all.

We have the bridges at the Baram River, at the Belait River and also at Lawas. The final bridge would be at Pendaruan linking Limbang and Temburong. One should take photos of the ferries before they became distant memories as the bridge would be built shortly. Remember this news reported in all the local and Malaysian newspapers in April 2011:

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Malaysia and Brunei have agreed in principle to build a bridge connecting Sarawak's Limbang and Temburong across the Pandaruan river in Brunei, a plan that would bring major advantage to commuters from both sides.

Malaysian Works Minister Shaziman Mansor told the press after taking a tour at the Pandaruan pier on Monday, that both Malaysia and Brunei governments have already agreed on the bridge construction and are now finalising the technical terms, such as subcontracts and maintenance.

The construction work, which costs some 25 million ringgit (8.27 million U.S. dollars) would kick off within three to four months and complete in a year, he said.

The Pandaruan river between Limbang and Temburong is less than 100 meters' wide.

But commuters are spending more than five hours to travel across to the other side via ferry, which has a maximum load of 10 for saloon cars and is only available from 6a.m. to 10p.m. daily.

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