Article: Pulau Bidong to be turned into maritime research centre

Friday July 10, 2009

By R.S.N.MURALI

Photos courtesy of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu

KUALA TERENGGANU: Pulau Bidong, once home to a Vietnamese refugee camp, will be turned into a maritime research centre by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).

UMT vice-chancellor Prof Dr Aziz Deraman said the abundance of flora and fauna found at the island was an appropriate base for the university to conduct research.

Protected species: The leatherback turtles often land on Pulau Bidong to lay eggs.

He said UMT's rehabilitation effort to revive the green lung areas on the island had been successful.

"We have been carrying out continuous work to revive the island's greenery, with the expertise of our horticulturists," he said.

Prof Aziz said university officials had been assigned to identify and tag the species of trees on the island.

"Once the assignment is completed, Pulau Bidong will be ready to be our research base as well as a place to organise study tours," he added.

Prof Aziz said the university had allocated RM3mil for the setting up of basic infrastructure facilities.

Pulau Bidong

This, he said included the construction of jetty and laboratories at the island.

The university has outlined the necessary measures to protect the environment during construction work.

Meanwhile, Prof Aziz said UMT was also in the midst of renovating its campus facilities to meet the requirements of the expanding student enrolment.

Apart from this, he added that the university was also completing other facilities and building several new faculties, at the cost of RM340mil.

The new buildings under construction are for the agro-technology and food science faculty, maritime and marine science faculty, aquaculture institute, oceanography institute and marine biotechnology institute.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: South & East, 10 July 2009