Background history of the Pelita Overpass.
Canada Hill is an awesome limestone ridge overlooking Miri City which offers excellent views of Miri and its surrounding.
Patients who died in the Miri Hospital in the 1950s were often buried in a government cemetery called Pandam Telakong to the left of the photo shown.
This was because many of them could not be taken home for burial by their loved oes. A journey from Niah to Miri would take three or more days along a small jungle path by foot. A boat journey, going down the Niah River would also take at least one and half days.
Furthermore treatment at the hospital located on the peninsular was therefore an expensive matter. Any one who died in the hospital would therefore be buried in Miri.
Pandam Tekalong (because there were several tekalong trees there) was a crude cemetery. Markings were simple as the bereaved were poor. Those who were Catholics were buried in the RC cemetery further up the hill.
In mid 2000's, for the purposes of urban development, like widening of roads and the construction of the overpass by Tan Sri Ting Pek King's company, the cemetery was removed. Some token rituals were performed and the bones exhumed. It was reported that compensation was also given to the affected families.
As there was no specific caretaker for the cemetery there was no proper record of who were exactly buried there. According to hearsay,some foreigners including expats, Indonesians, Chinese traders etc were buried there and there were no next of kin, especially during the Japanese Occupation.
The Overpass was thus built without further obstacles.
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