GEORGE TOWN, Nov 9 ― The Penang state government has neither intention nor plan to reclaim land just to raise funds for flood mitigation projects in the state, state executive councillor Lim Hock Seng said today.
As for the state's reserve funds that amounted to about RM1 billion, Lim said the state needed to consider other expenses, not only on flood mitigation.
“We must remember the state can't just focus on flood mitigation, we have other things to spend on but we have no plans at the moment to spend it on flood mitigation projects,” he said when asked if the state could allocate part of its reserve funds for flood mitigation.
He said the proposed reclamation works on the southern part of the island under SRS Consortium were strictly to fund the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan.
Lim explained that the current land reclamation works off Tanjung Tokong, that was approved by the previous state administration, were to fund the three paired roads and undersea tunnel project.
“The reclamation works is by E&O Berhad and they have given us 190 acres of the land to fund traffic management costs which is the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel and three paired roads project,” he said.
He explained that the RM305 million that the state paid for the feasibility studies for the undersea tunnel and three paired roads were paid through a land swap deal.
“Barisan Nasional had accused the state government of spending RM305 million on the feasibility studies and yet refused to spend RM350 million for the Sungai Pinang flood mitigation project.
“We want to point out that the RM305 million was meant for traffic dispersal and not for flood mitigation and it was funded through a land swap deal,” he said.
Lim said traffic dispersal should not be compared with flood mitigation as these are two completely different infrastructures.
“Both are equally important projects but we can't compare an orange with an apple,” he said.
Meanwhile, he added that the state government will continue to allocate funds for flood prevention at tributaries to the main rivers in the state.
“We can fund these smaller projects but when it comes to main rivers like Sungai Pinang, we can't afford to fund it and it is a federal jurisdiction,” he said.
Lim said the state government does not wish to engage in a war of words with the federal government over this issue.
He admitted that the recent flash floods in Batu Maung was caused by the ongoing road works there but said the project was a federal government project scheduled for completion in 2017.
“We will not place the full blame on the federal government on this. Instead, we will continue to work with the federal government to find a solution to deepen the existing drainage systems there so that these flooding issues are resolved before 2017,” he said.
