Citizen Awareness Chant Group (CHANT) legal adviser Yan Lee said the project, previously called the three paired roads project, was part of the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project approved by the DoE in November last year.
He acknowledged that the contractors had displayed their environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports to the public as required under law, but voiced concern that these were too technical for the people to understand.
He said town hall sessions or forums on the project would allow the public to air their views and learn more about it.
He praised the DoE for its recent town hall session on another proposed highway project in Penang, but asked why it had not done the same for the three main roads project.
“All we are asking for is that the people be informed. You cannot do things on the sly without telling anyone and then approve these projects.
“Proper notice must be given to all so that they attend. If they do not want to attend, and they do not care about highways running through their apartments, then that is their problem,” he said in a press conference here today.
When told of the likelihood that the project’s contractors had fulfilled their obligations by holding public forums, Lee said it would be best for them to reveal how many people they had consulted in the project.
DoE regulations require that contractors display the EIA reports in a prominent area, with a period allocated for public feedback and objections before approval is given.
Lee also reminded the Penang government that the group was still waiting for it to reveal the 59 conditions imposed by the DoE when approving the project last year.
The roads in question are three bypasses from the suburbs to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway (LCE), the coastal expressway hugging the eastern coast of the island which connects the two bridges to the mainland.
Authorities say the LCE is already at Class F in terms of service levels, a term used by engineers to describe a road often used in heavy traffic.
The state government said another highway, the 20km Pan Island Link 1, would help reduce traffic on the LCE.
The three main roads will run from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang (10.53km), Air Itam to LCE (5.7km), and the Jalan Pangkor-Gurney Drive junction to LCE (4.1km).
Work on the Air Itam bypass will begin in March next year and is expected to take three years to complete. There has been no announcement of a time frame for the other two bypasses.
According to a Bernama report on Sept 3, the Air Itam road will be built by Buildmarque Construction Sdn Bhd, a 50:50 joint venture between Vertice Bhd and Vizione Holdings Bhd, at a cost of RM815 million.
Vertice Bhd is involved in the project through its subsidiary Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZC), which won an open tender by the Penang government to build the undersea tunnel and three roads.
FMT has contacted CZC for comment and is waiting for a reply.