GEORGE TOWN, July 4 — The Penang government has not officially received approval for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its proposed Penang South Reclamation (PSR), Chow Kon Yeow clarified today.

The chief minister was responding to media queries after The Star claimed the EIA has been approved with 23 conditions, paving way for construction of three artificial islands in the Straits of Malacca.

“With regards to the news in The Star, the state government would like to make it clear that there are factual errors and reckless assumptions being made in it and irresponsibly misrepresented to the public,” he said in a statement, referring to the article titled “Penang gets nod to develop islands” published today.

Chow said the information was not from an authorised source and that the state will not bear any responsibility for any misinformation in the article.

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“Once the official letter of approval reaches us, the conditions of the approval will be made known to the public accordingly as any responsible government which believes in transparency would do,” he said.

He added that once his administration is officially informed of the EIA approval, it will work on a detailed design before calling tenders for the project, estimated to be in the first half of 2020.

He stressed that the information relayed in the news report was incorrect as the details of the project are still being worked out and will only be shared when it is ready.

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“The state government has been working diligently with various parties to obtain the necessary approval in compliance with the process and the approval, once obtained, will give the stimulus to get on with the job,” he said.

According to The Star, the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry approved the EIA for the proposed three man-made islands covering 1,800 hectares.

The daily cited unnamed sources claiming the project delivery partner, SRS Consortium, will call for a tender to reclaim the islands in the third quarter of this year.

The news report added that SRS Consortium will internally generate the seed fund of about RM2 billion to start the reclamation of the first island.

The PSR is the funding module for the state’s mega infrastructure project — the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

The state plan to sell lands created on the islands to raise funds for the PTMP that included a Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the controversial Pan Island Link 1 (PIL1) highway.

PIL1 is a 19.5km highway that is estimated to cost RM7.5 billion while the LRT, to cover 29.5km, is estimated to cost RM8.4 billion.