Mega project to go ahead

PENANGITES can rest assured that the Federal Government’s RM2.7bil Penang Sentral transport hub project will go on as promised. Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) chief executive officer Datuk Redza Rafiq said the project was expected to kick off in the fourth quarter of the year. He said NCIA was committed to ensure the project become a reality but stressed that it was a 10-year project that would be carried out in stages.

“I can assure you that the Penang Sentral project has not been shelved. It will go on as committed by the Federal Government. “NCIA has been tasked to see how it can position this project again. “We will work with all the parties concerned to move this together. At the moment, we are going through the land acquisition process with the stakeholders,” he said after opening Penang Adventist Hospital’s Living Well Physio Centre in Taman Seri Betik, Bukit Mertajam, yesterday. He was responding to questions by the media on why the project had been delayed by over six years since former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched it under the Northern Corridor Economic Region initiative in 2007.

Redza, however, said he was not sure what had caused the delay, saying that the delay “was before my time.” He said he hoped the initial earthwork for this project would take place this year. “The first phase will take slightly more than two years to complete,” he said. Redza said the partners in the project remained the same, with Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) taking the lead. In Nov 2011, Redza had said that the project would be built in three phases and be scheduled for completion by 2020. He said the transportation hub would be able to accommodate up to 180,000 passengers a day.

The project is being developed by MRCB in partnership with Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Berhad over 12.8ha. Both companies formed a joint venture company called Penang Sentral Sdn Bhd which will undertake the development of the transport and commercial hub. In January last year, Penang Public Works, Utilities and Transport Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng had said that it had been over a year since the state helped the Tran- sport Ministry acquire a parcel of state land to be merged with other parcels of land belonging to the Penang Port Commission PPC), Malaysian Highway Authority and Rail Authority Commission to make way for the project.

Lim had given an assurance that the state would get the Seberang Prai Municipal Council to expedite the project’s planning permission and building plans. The project will be located near the Butterworth ferry terminal. The first phase, costing about RM300mil, involves the construction of permanent bus and taxi terminals with access to the railway station and ferry terminal, along with retail outlets, and was initially slated for completion by 2011. The second phase, which will comprise a commercial hub including office towers, service apartments, a hotel and waterfront amenities was originally scheduled for completion by 2015. A RM5mil temporary bus terminal was completed near the project site in March 2008 after fire razed the former bus terminal at the PPC Complex in May 2001.

The Star Online

Saturday May 11, 2013

By Derrick Vinesh