By Lim Guan Eng
A formal letter will be sent to Works Minister Fadillah Yusof next week to seek Federal Government approval for the third bridge, from Gurney Drive on Penang Island to Bagan Ajam on the mainland, so that the state government can consider building a toll-free bridge.
During the Penang State Assembly meeting on Friday, I said it would be difficult to get approval from the Federal Government for a third bridge, when even the Prime Minister’s promises to build the Light Rail Transit in Penang Island on three different occasions remained unfulfilled.
Further the Federal Government also refused to even reply numerous letters to permit the state government to build our own LRT and at our own expense if the Federal Government refused to do so.
When there was no reply from the Federal Government, the Penang Government had no choice but to appoint a Project Delivery Partner (PDP) for the RM27 billion Public Transport Master Plan (PTMP) by open tender.
The PDP is the facilitator not only to make the PTMP project technically and financially viable, but also to secure regulatory approvals for public transport licensing and Detailed Impact Environment Assessment (DEIA) studies.
From this painful experience, it would be difficult to secure a response to build a third Bridge, much less obtain Federal Government approval to build a third bridge, even one that is self-financed by the state government.
The previous Barisan Nasional state government surrendered the rights to the Federal Government to build bridges linking the island to the mainland. Whilst the state government had to seek approval to build such bridges, there was no mention of a need for such approvals for an underground sea-bed tunnel link.
For this reason, the state government was compelled to choose the more expensive tunnel link, which is more than twice the cost of the bridge.
If Works Minister Fadillah Yusof can give approval to build a bridge instead of the undersea tunnel, this will save costs.
The undersea tunnel link costs RM3.7 billion (by open tender) and a bridge would cost RM1.8 billion, a savings of nearly RM2 billion. Such cost savings may allow the state government to waive the need to charge tolls for using the third bridge.
The Penang government has never imposed any toll charges on roads and bridges built, but had proposed a toll this time so as not to directly sabotage the business models of the other two existing bridges.
Whilst the Penang government wishes to thank Fadillah for his concern, we hope that he can approve the construction of a third bridge at the state government’s own expense so that the Penang government can test whether a bridge can be built toll-free.
If the Penang state government fails to build the third bridge toll-free, then a toll champion like Barisan Nasional can score huge political points against the Penang government for our inability to realistically fulfil our promises.
There is no reason for the Federal Government not to give approval for the third bridge when there is no cost to the Federal Government.
Further this will give the opportunity for Barisan Nasional to laugh at the expense of Pakatan Harapan for making empty promises no different from them should we fail.
Lim Guan Eng is Penang Chief Minister and secretary-general of DAP.
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