Proposed LRT line won’t cut into cemetery, reiterates Penang DCM

A portion of the cemetery at the Sungai Nibong Besar Mosque encroaches into a road reserve.

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government today reiterated that a proposed light rail transit (LRT) line in Bayan Lepas would not cut across a Muslim cemetery next to the Sungai Nibong Besar Mosque.

This followed claims by a group that over 600 bodies might have to be exhumed if the LRT line were to cross a portion of the cemetery.

In a statement, Deputy Chief Minister I Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abdul Rahman said the state government was firm in its earlier decision that the LRT line would not cross the cemetery, or the adjacent mosque, including its airspace.

“Not even an inch of the wakaf land, whether it is the cemetery or the mosque, would be allowed for the LRT project,” he said.

He, however, admitted there had been confusion over the boundaries for the cemetery, which appeared to have been extended 2.5m into a road reserve.

Zakiyuddin, who is also state Islamic Affairs Committee chairman, did not elaborate further on the encroachment issue.

He said construction work on the Sungai Nibong Besar Mosque, which was demolished last month to make way for a new building, would begin in August.

Yesterday, Sungai Nibong Besar Mosque Action Committee spokesman Sophian Mohd Zain said 600 bodies would have to be exhumed if a planned LRT runs through a portion of the cemetery deemed to have been extended onto a road reserve.

He said even if it was true that the cemetery had encroached onto the road reserve, it remained legal under Muslim law.

The issue here concerns the proposed Bayan Lepas LRT alignment, which was supposed to veer behind the mosque and an adjacent cemetery.

The mosque committee claims that the LRT route suddenly “changed” after the mosque was torn down recently to be rebuilt again.

This was after LRT builders had told the mosque committee in February that the route would instead take a straight path along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and would cut into the cemetery as well.

This offended the mosque committee, who then held protests after Friday prayers for two consecutive weeks outside Komtar, demanding that the alignment be changed.

The Penang government then said it would not touch the mosque or cemetery land or its airspace. The alignment would instead run parallel with Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, fronting the mosque.

The proposed 30km Bayan Lepas LRT line will have 27 stations, running from Komtar, the state government seat, to the three reclaimed islands planned in the south.

The line is expected to serve the industrial area in Bayan Lepas as well as passengers from the Penang International Airport.