GEORGE TOWN, Nov 4 — Construction works on Sungai Nibong Besar Mosque will start in January next year, Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abdul Rahman said today.
He gave the reassurance that the state is not delaying the project to rebuild the mosque in reply to an oral question by Opposition leader Datuk Muhamad Yusoff Mohd Noor (BN — Sungai Dua).
The Pinang Tunggal assemblyman stressed that the alignment for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) will not affect the original plan for the construction of the mosque which will be at the original site of the mosque.
“The mosque will also get additional land next to Lot 10067, which is in front of the mosque,” he said.
He said the new mosque will be constructed on Lot 3423 and Lot 10067 where the mosque will be located between Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and the proposed LRT line.
He said the delay in the construction of the new mosque was due to the realignment of the LRT line as the Public Works Department (PWD) will need to amend the plans for the mosque project.
“According to the PWD plan, the construction of the mosque will start in January next year and the proposed new LRT line will be parallel with Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and will not affect the nearby residential area or the new mosque,” he said.
Earlier today, a small group of the mosque committee held a peaceful demonstration outside the state legislative assembly at Dewan Sri Pinang before handing over a memorandum to Muhamad Yusoff.
The mosque committee chairman Sophian Mohd Zain said the 17-page memorandum was to press the state government to speed up construction of the new mosque.
“We hope the state government will follow the original plans of the LRT and the mosque that will not affect the mosque,” he said.
He said the old mosque building was demolished in May and was supposed to be rebuilt immediately but the works were stopped by the state government.
“They should have started construction in August but till today, nothing was done till today,” he said.
He claimed that the mosque committee had handed over RM4.65 million of its collections to the Prime Minister Department’s Implementation Coordinating Unit (ICU) in April and that the federal government had also allocated RM1.8 million for the construction of the mosque.
