From next year, the state government also said all planning permission by local councils would include conditions set by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH).
The state also announced that its hill site safety guidelines, last updated in 2012, would be revised by the year-end.
The latest move is motivated by recommendations proposed by the Penang State Commission of Inquiry (SCI) into the Tanjung Bungah landslide in 2017.
Elaborating on the RM250,000 fine proposal for illegal earthworks, state Local Government Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the current fines of RM50,000 and a five-year jail term were not a deterrent any more.
“We want to crack down big time on those who continue to carry out earthworks without our permission.
“We see states like Selangor already imposing a RM250,000 fine for illegal earthworks. We want to match that fine so people will take this matter seriously,” he said at a press conference today.
He said by next February, new state laws, tentatively titled Council (Earthworks) 2019 Bylaws, for the Penang Island and Seberang Perai councils, will be enacted by the state assembly.
“Part of the new law would include a minimum three-day closure of the worksite until the relevant matters have been fixed. If they don’t, they risk permanent closure,” he said.
Jagdeep said in future, councils would rope in DOSH to advise councils on what conditions to impose on developers concerning worksite safety.
For future hill site safety, he said a resident engineer and independent checking engineers would be made a requirement.
“Independent checking engineers would be empowered to stop work if safety concerns are raised.
“This is an unprecedented move as we are taking one further step in ensuring a safe worksite and making sure contractors follow them,” he said.
The SCI into the Tanjung Bungah landslide two years ago, which killed 11, had recommended action against two engineers for negligence.
It also found DOSH to be negligent in not taking note of the dangers posed by the unsafe slope and not issuing a “prohibition” stop-work order.
The 116-page report on the worksite incident, commonly called the “Granito” incident, had also revealed that the incident was “entirely preventable” if the engineers had done their jobs properly.
One of the highlights of the report was that a consultant engineer had been monitoring hill slope conditions through WhatsApp instead of making regular work inspections.