A filepic from 2022 showing a mural of the Sri Banting dredge at the Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi Walk in Sepang, which celebrates the municipality's culture and heritage. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
The Sri Banting Dredge in Sri Banting, Dengkil will be developed into the national tin mining heritage park and is expected to be fully operational in 2028.
Selangor Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Culture, Malay Customs and Heritage Committee chairman, Borhan Aman Shah said the 29.14ha heritage park is part of efforts to spur tourism and enhance the preservation of heritage in the state.
He said the development will start after the conservation of the 49-year-old dredge is completed.
"The dredge is leaking and the Sepang Municipal Council has called for a tender to appoint an experienced contractor to restore it.
"So far, three contractors have shown interest, but we are still waiting. It is complicated work and we expect the restoration process to take two years," he told reporters after the launching the "Reviving the History of the Selangor Industrial Revolution" event in Dengkil, Sepang yesterday.
In addition to the dredge structure, the heritage park will also include a tin museum, retail space, a camping site, and various other tourism activities.
"This development will boost the local economy and create job opportunities as well as raise the value of surrounding real estate. It can also be a learning centre for school students and historians,” he said.
Sepang Municipal Council president, Datuk Abdul Hamid Hussain, said the dredge will be turned into a living museum equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) and a state-of-the-art audio system.
He said Sri Banting is the largest dredge in the world and is a symbol of the evolution, pride, and industrial progress of tin mining in Selangor once upon a time.
"The 5,000-tonne dredge measures 86m in length, 22m to 29.3m in width and is powered by electricity. It has 110 buckets that can dig to a depth of 30m," he added. - Bernama
