GEORGE TOWN: Penang Works Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng has arranged for June 16 to meet and brief Barisan Nasional Strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan on the state’s proposed underwater tunnel project.
“I am going overseas tomorrow and will be ready to meet him in my office on Thursday next week,” Lim said in a statement here today.
He said the committee had previously invited Abdul Rahman to view documents relating to the project but the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister had turned down the gesture.
Meanwhile, Lim explained that the undersea tunnel project would potentially cost RM3.7 billion and not RM6.34 billion as claimed.
The RM6.34 billion, he said, was the overall cost for three proposed main road projects and the undersea tunnel.
He said the projects would be funded through land swap and funds for maintenance of the undersea tunnel would be from the toll to be imposed.
Lim said, “the tunnel would not be built now, only when the first and second Penang bridges are overcome by traffic congestion.”
But it is expected to materialise by 2027, he said, explaining further that the feasibility study for the project cost RM20 million and not RM305 million as claimed by certain quarters.
“To date, no payment in cash or even one sq inch of land has been made. The feasibility study is only 83 percent completed so we cannot yet submit it to the federal government.”
Lim said the value of the land as stated in the agreement between the state government and Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) was RM1,300 sq ft, in accordance with the RM475 per sq ft of land swap rated by the Valuation and Property Services Department.
On the contract for the project, he said it was awarded through open tender and the consortium was picked because it offered the lowest bid and fulfilled technical specifications.
Lim also dismissed Abdul Rahman’s claim that the state government paid 11 percent in consultancy fees to the consortium for ‘civil & structural’ projects and said it was only 2.5 percent (which is less than the 2.54 percent set by the Board of Engineers Malaysia).
On the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) shares in CZBUCG, which have deteriorated in value, Lim said the state government’s entitlement and interest were not affected.
“CRCC and Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) signed separately as individual companies in the preliminary agreement with the state government.
“This means that CRCC and BUCG are also bound individually with the state government in the implementation of the project.
“Furthermore, CRCC is in another joint venture with Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd to implement the project,” he said.
Lim said the Penang DAP government would readily cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on any investigation pertaining to the undersea tunnel project. --BERNAMA