from: Lim Lai Kong, via email
An impasse continues between Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Works Minister Fadillah Yusof over the state’s proposed third bridge.
Sources said earlier this week, the Works Ministry has received a letter dated July 15 from the state government requesting a meeting to discuss the application for the third bridge.
The Works Ministry has written back, saying that such a meeting could take place but the state government must first submit the existing feasibility and detailed design reports on the Penang tunnel and three-linked-paired road.
“We need to study the reports before we can talk about the third bridge, It is a reasonable request as we cannot go into a meeting to discuss a major infrastructure request just based on a two-page letter. We don’t understand why they are hesitant to submit since they say the reports are completed and have already paid so much. It’s a mystery to us.’” said a source.
The sources said the ministry has been kept in the dark over the tunnel project as it only received a two-page application letter from the chief minister’s office with no supporting documents.
The RM6.341 billion Penang tunnel and three-linked road project has come under criticisms from various quarters who alleged that the state government was essentially paying for the full construction cost of the project but still allowing the contractor to collect toll for 30 years.
Following heavy criticism from Barisan Nasional and Penang NGOs, Guan Eng had mooted the idea to replace a proposed cross-channel tunnel with a bridge without toll.
Initially, Guan Eng had accused the Federal Government of not approving the third bridge proposal.
However, Fadillah who had disputed it, had asked Guan Eng to state when such an application was made or when such discussions had taken place. He agreed to evaluate it if an actual application was made.
The chief minister then wrote a two-page application letter to the Prime Minister, with a copy to the Works Ministry, seeking for approval in principle for the third bridge.
In welcoming Guan Eng’s application for the third bridge, Fadillah insisted that the chief minister submit the feasibility and detailed design report for the tunnel and three linked roads for his ministry to study.
In April, the Penang government had said that the feasibility study and detailed design reports for the three-linked roads were completed while the feasibility report for the tunnel was 83 percent complete.
The RM305 million cost for the reports had also been under heavy criticism which the state government had defended, claiming the price was reasonable.
The proposed Penang tunnel and its three associated roads are components of the proposed Penang Transport Master Plan the costs for which, executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow had recently stated, had increased from RM27 billion to RM46 billion.
State executive councillor Lim Hock Seng had also stated much of the feasibility study for the tunnel could be reused even if it was converted into a bridge as the alignment would be the same.
In four separate statements over the past two months, the Works Minister had repeated its request for these documents to be submitted prior to a meeting, resulting in a final one-week deadline given on July 14 via a public statement.
On Monday, the ministry had issued a statement that they will suspend the talks on the third bridge as the Penang Government had failed to meet the deadline to submit the documents.
In that statement, the ministry had expressed surprise at the unwillingness of the Penang government to submit the reports despite four requests.
Free Malaysia Today had reported on Tuesday that Guan Eng said that the request by the ministry for the design report on the tunnel lacked logic as the report for a bridge will be different from that for a tunnel.
He was also quoted as saying that although the state government can submit the tunnel report, it will be of no use to the Works Ministry.
Lim Lai Kong is an FMT reader
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