The upgrades have been eagerly awaited by the cruise industry, as at one time, there were six cruise ships waiting in queue to berth at their pier and could handle 6,700 passengers at any one time.

The Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal has become a favourite transit destination for cruise-goers, where they disembark to spend half a day in George Town before returning to their ships for the remainder of their cruise.

The Penang Port Commission said works on the terminal had been completed on May 31 and it was awaiting local authority approval by July.

The upgrade was carried out by Penang Port Sdn Bhd and US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited, in a 60:40 joint venture. An existing solid deck wharf of 400m was extended by 220m and a breasting and mooring dolphin, a buffer between the ships and the pier, was expanded to 68m from 50m.

The expansion will allow two 360m-long Oasis-class ships to dock at the same time.

PPC chairman Tan Teik Cheng said there two more phases of improvements will be carried out until 2025, which includes new boarding bridges, upgrades to its warehouses which were given duty-free status and also the terminal building.

He hoped that the pier would one day be a home port for major cruise liners. “Although the cruise industry is on a hiatus, we must make enough preparations for future demands,” he said.

Penang’s cruise terminal outpaced Port Klang in 2017 as the top cruise port of call and recorded 1.2 million passenger arrivals in 2019, state government data show.