GEORGE TOWN, Sept 22 — Landscaping works on a seafront park in Penang, called Gurney Wharf, will start next year after the state calls for an open tender to appoint a contractor for the project, said Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.

The Penang lawmaker said the state will be appointing a consultant to come up with plans for landscaping works on the park in October.

“After that we will call for a tender for the various work packages for the waterfront and planting of trees early next year,” he said in a press conference at an event at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel along Gurney Drive here.

The Gurney Wharf project is a seafront public park located on part of the 131.09 acres of reclaimed land off Gurney Drive that was handed over to the state government.

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“Out of the 131 acres, only 40 acres is for public facility,” Chow said.

Last week, state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo said works on Gurney Wharf which was supposed to start early this year was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He confirmed that the reclaimed land off the Gurney Drive foreshore was already handed over to the state government.

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Reclamation works along the Gurney Drive foreshore started in 2016, with reclamation of 131.09 acres (53ha) of land completed in September 2019.

The reclamation works was conducted in accordance with a concession agreement signed between the Penang state government and Tanjung Pinang Development Sdn Bhd (TPD), a subsidiary of Eastern & Oriental Berhad.

Under the agreement, TPD was to reclaim the land at its own cost and handover 131.09 acres of reclaimed land along the Gurney foreshore to the state government by December 2022.

According to an official statement from Eastern & Oriental Berhad, sectional handover to the state government began in October 2019 and is currently ongoing.

It was previously announced that the Gurney Wharf project will be a seafront public park with a wetland, food and beverage outlets, retail outlets and a water taxi pier along the site.