Penang unveils RM8b traffic mitigation blueprint
Touting it as the state government's biggest infrastructure exercise to date, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the projects — all of which will be conducted via open tender — will also allow greater access between the island and the mainland.
The proposed projects are a third (tunnel) link connecting Gurney Drive to Seberang Perai North District, a by-pass connecting Gurney Drive to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway, a link between Bandar Baru Air Itam to the same expressway, as well as a paired road to the existing coastal road from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang.
"We need a northern link connecting Gurney Drive to Butterworth, to make it easier for people in the mainland to come to the island, and this will ease up congestion in addition to the two Penang bridges.
"The estimated costs for this project will be between RM5 [and] RM8 billion and expected to be completed by 2020," Lim told reporters here.
The Penang CM said the state government will not provide any payments for the projects, and that the costs incurred will be recovered through a "competitive land swap" deals with prospective companies.
Lim said his administration will provide a preliminary financial proposal that will include the planned financing structure as well as bids to recover costs.
"The proposed land swap will involve the best prime land in Penang, which is in Gurney... the price of land in Penang will increase over the next few years, and this will benefit the companies who will undertake the road and tunnel projects."
He also said his administration was also looking at the possibility of conducting a toll system for the projects once they are completed, but added this was provisional and would depend on what interested companies had to offer.
A pre-qualification exercise briefing for prospective companies will be held in Penang on November 29. Application and questionnaire pro-forma forms will be given out then and bidders must submit the forms by 12pm, January 2012.
Works will tentatively begin sometime in 2015.
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