Penang BN information chief H’ng Khoon Leng said at a press conference in Georgetown that people can only make wise decisions if the caretaker Penang state government provided details and informed exactly how much each of the proposed tunnel and three highways would cost.
THE Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth has challenged the caretaker state government again to provide all the details of its proposed RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel and highway projects here.
The coalition, which is asking Penang voters to choose between the BN’s free port vision and the Pakatan Rakyat’s proposed under sea tunnel project, said it was the right of the people to know the de tails.
State BN information chief H’ng Khoon Leng said the people could only make wise decisions if the care taker state government provided de tails and informed them exactly how much each of the proposed tunnel and three highways would cost.
“We are asking for the exact cost of each project. After we criticised the Tanjung Bungah—Teluk Bahang paired road for being too expensive, the cost of the project went down from RM58 million to RM37.8 mil lion.
“If the cost for one road can change, will the cost for the others change as well? The state should re veal the figures so we can be sure and can better judge the projects,” he said during a press conference at the state BN headquarters here yester day.
H’ng said the caretaker state gov ernment owed the people more in formation on the projects while the state BN had provided details on its free port status vision for Penang.
He said the coalition had gone to the ground to provide information and explain to the people why a free port status would benefit them and Penang’s economy.
“They (Pakatan) need to give in formation (on the multi-billion in frastructure projects) while we only have to give more explanations (on the free port) to help the public un derstand better.
“We hope the people will be able to judge and compare our free port vision against the Pakatan’s tunnel vision,” he said, adding that one aimed to enrich the people while the other would take money out of pock ets for toll.
H’ng also said the people had re sponded positively to Penang BN’s free port vision so far, with feedback gathered over the past few months showing that Penangites were sup portive of the idea.
He added that the free port would be part of the state BN’s manifesto, which was expected to be launched this week.
Apart from the 6.5km undersea tunnel linking Persiaran Gurney and Bagan Ajam and the Tanjung Bungah—Teluk Bahang paired road, the other two proposed projects are the 4.2km expressway and bypass from Persiaran Gurney to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway, and the 4.6km expressway and bypass from the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway to Bandar Baru Air Itam.
Last month, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that the tender to build the projects had been awarded to a Malaysian-Chinese joint venture, Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd.
