GEORGE TOWN, Dec 1 – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today said Putrajaya had continuously sidelining Penang for the the national budget in the past few years. Meanwhile, he said several federal projects which promised to the state have also been cancelled.
“Not only is the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had a total of 3 times promise to build the LRT system to reduce traffic congestion, even the state government application for an RM805 million flood mitigation project was also rejected,” Lim said in a statement today.
“The application of new projects for flood mitigation project which made recently was following by the Prime Minister’s who promise resolve the flash flood problems in the state but unfortunately it remains an empty promise. Worse is likely Sungai Pinang Flood Mitigation Project (RTB), worth RM150 million was also be canceled even though it was approved in the 9th Malaysia Plan,” he said.
“This is really unfair that Penang pays RM6.3 billion annually in taxes and customs duties every year but we only can get the return of 2% only. Penang is still a part of Malaysia and should not be sidelined and against and neglected because it is governed by political rivals,” he said.
“In addition, the critical situation of Penang International Airport (LTAPP) are overcrowded like a ‘pasar malam’, and is expected to exceed its capacity of 6.5 million passengers, but Putrajaya was not being taken seriously.Initial plans to build a four-star hotel or any other commercial complex at the airport have also been canceled and only project of the airport parking spaces will be added,” he said.
Lim added that it is hoped that the promise to build a multilevel parking facility to increase its capacity to 3,000 lots, specifically to meet the needs of airport users, will not stay empty promises, as has been with previous sweet promises. In his written reply, Liow said that Penang International Airport is capable of handling 6.6 million passengers a year and the total passenger traffic handled at the airport was 6 million passengers in 2014.
He said Economic Planning Unit is conducting a study entitled “Study on Development of International Airport in the North of the Peninsula”. The survey will take about 6 months and will be completed by the end of November. Penang has been asking for the airport to be expanded to be able to meet with increasing number of passengers using the airport for domestic and international travel instead of the proposal by Kedah for Putrajaya to build an international airport in Kulim.
