Don’t extend validity of Penang highway’s EIA, Putrajaya told

Penang Forum’s Lim Mah Hui and Khoo Salma Nasution claim that extending the environmental impact assessment could also be seen as an abuse of power.

GEORGE TOWN:

Putrajaya has been urged not to extend the validity of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Penang’s Pan Island Link 1 highway, a project that green groups feel poses a threat to the island’s sensitive ecosystem.

This was after Penang recently said it would ask for the validity of the EIA for the state’s biggest highway to be extended following its expiry on April 10.

In writing to the environment department (DoE) today, Penang Forum said the EIA should not be extended, as it would set a bad precedent and could be construed as an abuse of power.

It said it previously sent a 38-page document of experts’ feedback on the project to the DoE and the former environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, but never heard back from them.

“Unfortunately, Penang Forum has never received a response to our feedback, written meticulously by former professors and environmental experts in the field.

“We hope the DoE will keep up its environmental standards without fear or favour for the coming generation,” the group’s representatives Lim Mah Hui and Khoo Salma Nasution said.

The letter was also sent to environment and water minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

A critical factor in getting the project moving, the EIA was granted on April 10, 2019, with a two-year expiration. It was extended by another year in 2021. The 19.5km project has yet to begin due to funding issues and will cost the state RM7.5 billion.

In 2018, Penang Forum found PIL 1’s EIA unsatisfactory and released a report to the DoE urging them to reject the EIA and order that another fresh EIA be carried out.

Chief among the forum’s concerns was that the EIA did not meet standards set under environmental law and the threat of sinking from drilling and blasting in tunnelling through the Penang Hill range.

However, the state government had allayed such fears of subsidence before, saying the tunnelling process would be done slowly and steadily.

In the report, the group also pointed out a red flag from those who prepared the EIA themselves, where the PIL 1 highway would be congested again by 2030, which is about five to seven years after the highway was scheduled to complete.

The Penang government had said the project was professionally undertaken and that 80% of Penangites supported the project, which it called the “silent majority”.

The 19.5km six-lane highway will link Gurney Drive to the northeast of the island via the hills of Air Itam, Paya Terubong and Sungai Ara before ending close to the airport and second bridge in the south.

It will allow motorists to arrive at the airport from Gurney Drive in 15 minutes.

FMT has contacted the Penang government, the Penang Infrastructure Corporation and DoE for comment.

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Don’t extend validity of Penang highway’s EIA, Putrajaya told

NGO Penang Forum says it will set a bad precedent if the environmental impact assessment on the highway which is estimated to cost RM7.5 billion, is renewed again.