The former chief minister said no one in the state opposed the LRT except opposition politicians, including those from MCA.

“I’ve never heard any Penangite reject the project, only the opposition does,” he said at the Penang DAP Deepavali open house in Air Itam.

Lim said the LRT had long been a dream project for the state and should not be politicised, warning that voters would have a clear choice in the next election.

He said the people should continue to support the unity government under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim so that the LRT project will be fully realised.

“If you want the LRT, support Anwar, or else support the opposition like MCA and lose it,” he said.

Lim said he was shocked that some Penang leaders were willing to “burden the people’s interests for their own politics”, stressing that the LRT was vital to ease congestion and improve public transport.

His remarks were in response to MCA deputy president Mah Hang Soon, who had questioned the LRT’s financial viability, calling it a vanity project lacking clear ridership and integration plans.

The Penang LRT has been in the works for nearly a decade as a key solution to the island’s traffic woes. It was first proposed during Lim’s tenure as chief minister in 2015 under the Penang Transport Master Plan.

His government had planned to fund it through land reclamation, but federal approval was delayed by environmental and funding issues.

The project was revived last year by the unity government, rebranded as the Penang LRT Mutiara Line, with the transport ministry and MRT Corp as the federal implementing agencies.

The LRT will link George Town to Butterworth. Work began in July, with completion expected in six to seven years, at a cost of about RM17 billion.

PAS MPs have attacked the plan in Parliament, saying Penangites do not want it and warned it would burden public finances.

The Penang government and Pakatan Harapan leaders have defended the LRT as a long-overdue project to ease congestion and drive economic growth.