Bandar Seri Begawan - Whenever Bruneians travelled along the smooth fast wide highways linking Muara to Tutong and eventually to Kuala Belait, taking only an hour they often forget that the Brunei roads were never like that a mere 50 years ago. In fact, there were hardly any roads in Brunei Darussalam in the late 1940s and that, that same journey will take a whole day.
Captain TS Monks, who was part of the British Military Administration wrote a description of Brunei roads at the end of the WWII in his book, Brunei Days published in 1992: "By now, in 1945, Brunei was at its lowest depths in its long and colourful history. Brunei was a backwater which the affairs of the outside world had barely touched. It was not easy to travel even within the state. There was only one main road to a village called Tutong. Beyond that, to get to Seria and the only other town of any size in Brunei, Kuala Belait, involved the crossing of two broad rivers and driving along the beach when the tide was out. Moving inland meant journeys along rivers and jungle tracks."
He described the road from Brooketon (now Muara) to Brunei Town (now Bandar Seri Begawan): "At first it was a reasonable but unpaved narrow road, but within a mile it deteriorated into just a jungle track with deep pot-holes as we went on, the jungle thickened. We were about three hours going along that appalling track and then, quite suddenly, we were out of the jungle and on to a reasonable paved road — we were nearing Brunei Town, the once-great city of powerful rulers."
However road conditions were much worse before that. In 1906, Peter Blundell in his book City of Many Waters published in 1923, noted that "there were no roads in all the country". In 1910, the Brunei Annual Report stated that "the nature of Brunei territory has been made for water borne communication rather than for land routes; even when roads are eventually opened up, the water-ways will still attract most of the traffic".
How life has changed indeed since the days of 1906 and 1945.
The early Annual Brunei Reports of 1906 onwards described the road network that was slowly building up. The first road was the one linking the British Consulate (now known as Bubungan Duabelas) (BT 5 August, 2007) in Jalan Residency to the town centre and was around 2.5km long.
By 1907, the government had taken over a few roads built by oil prospecting companies although these roads were generally in the interior parts. These include one which linked Sungai Tajau to a Rumah Panjang and later extended for a few kilometers to Sungai Madang near Sungai Tutong. The same road was extended from Sungai Tajau to Sungai Barau.
It was in the town centre that the road buildings were in earnest. By 1908, there were more than 16km of roads being built including two roads in the town centre complete with street lighting.
It was commercial activities that dictated the construction of roads in Brunei, that of oil prospecting and rubber planting. These are mostly short rural roads built all over the country. The British Borneo Petroleum, the forerunner to today`s Brunei Shell Petroleum built a number of roads in the Belait District as well as a now defunct 12km railway track linking Seria to Badas.
The major road 100km long linking Brunei Town and Kuala Belait was planned as early as 1914. The first phase was from Damuan to Tutong which was completed in 1916. It was in 1924 before the road linking Brunei to Tutong was completed. It was that year that the first car was imported in Brunei and by the end of the same year; there were as many as 4 cars. By 1930, there were 73 cars registered in Brunei.
The roads were only paved after 1927 when the government imported a number of equipment including a tar boiler and a motor roller. By the end of 1932, the government was now responsible for about 60 kilometers of roads. Two years later, the government had about 110km of roads with about 46km in Belait. Just before WW2, there were as many as 160km of roads. Brunei and Temburong were linked in 1932 when the road linking Brunei and Limbang was completed.
During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese built or rather opened up a road linking Brunei Town and Muara (described by Monks as a jungle track) and the connection from Tutong to Kuala Tutong. They needed the infrastructure for their troops` movement. Unfortunately, during the war, many roads were not maintained. As a result, they were badly deteriorated in those years. There were many road building and rebuilding after the end of the war.
It was the 1950s that saw the most expansion of roads in the country. The major rivers which had to be crossed, Sungai Tutong and Sungai Telamba, both in Tutong were bridged over. The one in Bandar Brunei, Sungai Kedayan or Sungai Rangas as it used to be known also had a new two lane bridge replacing the old single lane Jembatan Rangas. The new bridge was named as the Edinburgh Bridge when it was opened by Duke of Edinburgh. The Gadong Bridge was also opened at about the same time.
Before the bridge crossing the Tutong River was completed, one had to cross from Kuala Tutong to Danau using a makeshift ferry service which was an old "pontoon of two small boats joined together, planked over and towed" as described in the Brunei Annual Report of 1958. Earlier on, two older Australian work boats were used, replaced by the `Higgins` in 1955 and the `Pemancha` in 1956.
The ferry traffic rose tremendously in the 1950s. In 1957, there were 65 per cent more traffic than in 1956 and in 1958, there were 33 per cent more than the previous year. In 1958, when the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque was opened, many people traveled to and fro Kuala Belait and Seria to Bandar Brunei. According to records, there were 17,725 trucks and buses, 15,472 cars and 1,495 motorcycles which used the ferry service in that year.
However at the end of that year, traffic finally could travel on roads and the bridges linking Bandar Brunei and Kuala Belait without having to use ferries, pontoon or otherwise. It was on Christmas Day in 1958.
Fast forward to today. Michael Cable and Rodney Tyler wrote in their book, Brunei Darussalam — the Country, the Sultan, the People published in 2000, "billions of dollars of government money have been spent on bringing the country`s infrastructure up to date. New dual carriageways have been built on all the main routes out of the capital, and a sophisticated ring road system keeps traffic moving in a country where cheap petrol and the general level of affluence men there are more cars than people of driving age. Four-car households are not uncommon."
Times indeed have changed in the 100 years since Peter Blundell stated "there were no roads in all the country".
Source: www.bruneitimes.com (27 September 2007)
