Kon Yeow: Mega infrastructure projects to relieve Penang’s traffic woes set to commence if mandate given in state polls

Published by Free Malay Mail • 14/7/2023

Caretaker Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said his administration’s focus for the next five years, if given the mandate this August 12, is to at least start the remaining of its planned projects such as the Penang South Islands (PSI) reclamation, Pan Island Link 1 (PIL1), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the undersea tunnel and three paired roads project. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, July 15 — The Pakatan Harapan-led (PH) state government aims to implement the rest of its mega infrastructure projects to resolve the traffic issues in the state if given the mandate for the fourth term in this state election.

Caretaker Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said his administration’s focus for the next five years, if given the mandate this August 12, is to at least start the remaining of its planned projects such as the Penang South Islands (PSI) reclamation, Pan Island Link 1 (PIL1), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the undersea tunnel and three paired roads project.

“We hope to get all these started in the next term, it will take years to complete, probably not in my time, but we want to at least get it all started,” he said in an interview with Malay Mail recently.

One of the projects, Package Two, has already started early this year and Chow said the Penang government will start negotiations for Package One after the polls.

Package Two is a RM851 million highway project linking Thean Teik Expressway to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway while Package One is a paired road between Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang.

Package Three is a highway linking Gurney Drive to the Central Business District in George Town to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.

The highways are part of the RM6.3 billion project, consisting of an undersea tunnel and three paired road packages.

The undersea tunnel linking Gurney Drive to Butterworth on the mainland will be the last to be implemented.

Banking on Halcrow’s plan to resolve traffic issues

Other than the highways, Chow said his administration hopes to start reclamation works for PSI and with that, works on PIL1 and LRT will kick off too.

He said these are projects that were recommended in Halcrow’s comprehensive transport plan.

The Halcrow study was conducted in 2011 and its blueprint for the Penang Transport Master Plan was adopted in 2013.

“We adopted Halcrow’s transport plan to resolve the traffic issues in Penang,” Chow said.

Chow said the state government is ready to start Phase One of the LRT project that links Bayan Lepas to Komtar and to Tanjung Bungah after the federal government announced funding for the project.

He said Phase Two of the LRT will connect Seberang Perai on the mainland to Komtar on the island.

Seeing the Penang2030 vision to the end

Other than these mega infrastructure projects to resolve the state’s growing traffic issues, Chow said his administration aims to also look into introducing more policies on social development.

“Social development is an important agenda for the next term so that we can create a more inclusive society with a high happiness index and quality of life,” he said.

He said all of these projects and initiatives are based on the Penang2030 vision he had launched after becoming the chief minister in 2018.

He said the Penang2030 vision is a blueprint and 12-year plan for the state administration to focus on developing the state.

“Previously, we were not guided by any specific plan so this vision is a plan for the way forward for Penang,” he said.

Currently, he said the administration has achieved at least 47 per cent of the Penang2030 vision and he hopes that his administration will be given the fourth mandate to continue until the plans in the vision are fulfilled.

“Some of these programmes overlapped with our 2018 manifesto and we have already achieved 94 per cent of the pledges made in our manifesto,” he said.

Penang on road to recovery

Chow believed that Penang is now on the right track and is fast recovering after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have moved on from low-cost production into a knowledge-based manufacturing hub that has been doing well in the past five years, even during the pandemic,” he said.

He said the tourism sector of the state took a beating due to the pandemic but it is now well on its way to recovery.

“If we look at Penang Hill numbers, we may even surpass the tourism numbers of 2019 before the pandemic, by the end of this year,” he said.

He said recently the World Bank Data has named Penang as one of the high-income states in Malaysia and the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2022 surpassed all states at 13.1 per cent.

He said it is a good sign and they hoped to continue to accelerate the state’s economic development via its two main sectors, manufacturing and services.

Now that the state administration is in line with the unity federal administration, he hoped that the PH and Barisan Nasional alliance would be given the mandate in Penang this state election so that they can continue to implement projects for the progress of the state.

“This way, we will be able to continue to implement projects for the betterment of the state and its people with support from the unity government,” he said.