GEORGE TOWN, Nov 14 — A total RM18.6 million was spent on flood mitigation and drainage works all around George Town since 2008, said state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow.
The local government, traffic management and flood mitigation committee chairman said the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) spent RM5.5 million for drainage and flood mitigation projects while another RM13.1 million was from the developers’ contribution fund.
“These are for 20 to 30 projects in the Tanjung constituency only,” Chow told reporters this morning when conducting a site visit of the flood mitigation project at Transfer Road.
The RM13.1 million also included projects planned for 2017.
“It’s not tried that we did not allocate funds for flood mitigation and drainage projects because even in other constituencies, there are between 10 and 20 projects each,” he said.
As for the Transfer Road and Hutton Lane flood mitigation project, Chow said RM6.053 million was allocated for it.
“The project costs comes up to RM5.8 million, cheaper than the earlier estimate after an open tender exercise,” he said.
Chow said the Transfer Road and Hutton Lane area is a flood prone area that had remained unresolved for decades while under the Barisan Nasional administration.
“It was not resolved even when it was the then chief minister’s constituency and it was still not resolved when it was under Teng Chang Yeow’s constituency,” he said.
He said the current administration had decided to allocate funds to implement the project in a bid to resolve the flooding issues there.
He said recent criticisms against the state government for allegedly not implementing projects to resolve flooding issues in the state were unfounded.
The Transfer Road and Hutton Lane flood mitigation project will be completed by this Thursday.
