GEORGE TOWN, Feb 15 — The Penang government announced today a six month extension of an award letter to SRS Consortium, its project delivery partner for the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

The initial award letter which expires end of this month will now be valid until June.

"This is just a technicality and we will continue to extend the award letter until they obtain the necessary approvals from various authorities for the project,” state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow said.

The local government and traffic management committee chairman said SRS Consortium had to obtain approvals from authorities like the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) for the PTMP project components.

SRS had already submitted an application to SPAD to obtain a conditional approval for a proposed railway scheme for the Bayan Lepas Light Rail Transit (LRT).

The Bayan Lepas LRT project along with the pan island highway link and the reclamation of two islands off southern Penang is the first phase of the PTMP implementation.

The state government called for a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the project on August 8, 2014 and six companies have submitted bids for the RFP.

SRS Consortium was appointed as the project delivery partner to implement the PTMP and they were officially given the letter of award on August 14 last year.

No contracts related to the whole PTMP project have been signed as it is still pending the relevant approvals.

Currently, two full sets of the tender documents for the PTMP is on public display at Dewan Sri Pinang.

Chow said the public exhibition of the documents ends on February 17 but due to four proposals from the public to extend it, the public display has been extended until end of this month.

"As at today, a total 70 people went to the public exhibition and we received a total 13 written feedback on the documents where four of it was suggestions to extend the exhibition period,” he said.

The RFP displayed contains a total 21 volumes of the detailed proposal along with social impact, environmental impact, traffic impact and feasibility studies conducted by SRS.

Though the documents are on public display, the public is not allowed to make copies or take photos of the documents.

They are only allowed to write down information from the documents.

Those who turned up to view the documents will be required to sign declaration forms to ensure that they comply with the conditions of viewing the classified documents.

The documents displayed are the initial proposal submitted by SRS so it will not contain the latest additions and changes that the state government has made to the project.

The RFP documents are open to public viewing only during office hours on weekdays.

The viewing time is: Mondays - Thursdays (8am-1pm, 2pm-5pm), Friday (8am-12.15pm, 2.45pm-5pm).