KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — The Works Ministry said today it has yet to receive feasibility reports on the Penang tunnel project.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng first promised to deliver the report in April last year, but had not done so yet.
“At that time, we were very eager and curious to see what reports that cost RM305 million looks like as based on our ministry’s experience, it seems vastly overpriced,” Fadillah said in a statement issued today.
The feasibility report, Fadillah said, was requested after Lim wanted to change the tunnel to a bridge.
“However, he (Lim) did not send anything to me,” he added.
Fadillah claimed Lim had then promised that the report would be submitted by the end of last year, but had not done so.
“In March this year, the Penang CM said it was still only 87 per cent completed and promised that they will send it six months later,” he said, adding the deadline has since passed.
Fadillah said he found the delay “very unusual” given that the contract was awarded in April 2013 and that no progress has since taken place after the Penang government paid almost RM220 million for it.
“If a project by our ministry experiences delay or have areas of concern like their project, we would have been under intense criticism by the Opposition with many allegations of corruption or cronyism,” he said.
Previously, Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications deputy director Datuk Eric See-To claimed that the Penang state government had overpaid the consulting fees for the three paired roads component of the undersea tunnel project.
