Wee had claimed that Lim, the then finance minister, delayed the expansion by asking for it to be taken private, instead of using funds allocated in Budget 2018.
The transport minister then challenged Lim to a debate on the issue.
Lim and his Pakatan Harapan colleagues hit back at Wee, saying the latter had cancelled the project when he assumed the role of transport minister after the Sheraton Move in 2020. Wee has since denied this.
Today, Lim denied Wee’s assertion, saying the BN government that prepared Budget 2018 did not allocate funds for the airport’s expansion.
Lim said that when he was finance minister, he had merely asked for the project to be expanded from the proposed capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (mppa) to 16 mppa, with a provision that it could be expanded further to 20 mppa in the future.
Currently, the airport is designed to take 6.5 mppa but operates overcapacity with more than 8 million passengers using the airport each year.
“If we were to go with 12 mppa as suggested by the former BN government, by the time it is expanded, it would exceed its capacity again. The so-called budget allocation Wee cited never existed, it is a figment of his imagination.
“Now, even if there were budgetary funds, why didn’t Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (the airport’s operator) request for the necessary permission from the city council?
“The reality is that when Wee became transport minister, he cancelled the project on the ruse of an aviation study. He has made a wholly malicious and slanderous claim that I was the cause of the delay. I’m ready to debate him on live TV,” he told FMT.
Lim said Wee’s claim that the expansion was put off due to pandemic-driven pressures on MAHB was not true.
He said MAHB had applied for the city council’s approval to expand the airport to a capacity of 12 mppa, which was approved in December 2019. He said the operator was keen on expanding the airport as it was one of the most profitable airports in the country.
Separately, Penang infrastructure committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the pandemic excuse given by Wee to shelf the airport expansion was lame, as other key infrastructure projects in the Klang Valley kicked off during the lockdown.
“All this when the MRT2 project and others carried on as usual. Are Klang Valley projects more important than those in Penang?” he asked.