We refer to the letter Wither Penang's four transport plan reports?

The writer has asked why the Penang state government is having another Transport Master Plan when there were four previous plans commissioned by the former Penang state government that never saw the light of the day. It is a good question and this government cannot answer for the deeds or lack of deeds of the previous state government. The writer needs to address it to them.

Nevertheless, there is a need for a comprehensive Transport Master Plan as the previous plans - the JIC studies in the 1970s, the Bus and Public Transport Studies in 1990, the Halcrow Fox Studies in 1999 and the G Naidu studies commissioned by the Economic Planning Unit of the federal government - were specific, piecemeal, ad hoc and not integrative. Furthermore they are outdated.

This proposed Transport Master Plan will be integrative and be based on the Structure and Local Plans that are being formulated. It will also solicit and involve the public and stakeholders for input and review. The Transport Master Plan should then serve as a comprehensive blueprint for future transport planning policies for Penang from 2010-2030.

The present Penang state government, cognisant of public participation, established the Penang Transport Council comprising mainly of independent members of the public drawn from professionals, academics from institutions of higher learning and traffic management experts to advise the state government on transport issues.

The task force responsible for the Transport Master Plan together with the local authorities have formulated terms of reference for this project. An open tender has been placed on its website on March 12, 2010 and the closing date for a tender submission is April 30, 2010. For the submission requirements, the consultant will need to provide a technical write up, company profile, methodology of studies and the cost of the studies.

Contrary to the writer’s unfounded claims that this tender process is skewed to ‘selected’ bidders and discriminates against foreign consultants, to date, more foreign consultants have registered their interest in bidding for the tender than local consultants. The Institution of Engineers (IEM) has also sent out a memo to inform members of the Transport Master Plan.

It is not clear when the writer claims that the time is ‘too short’ to do a comprehensive transport study, whether he is referring to the one year to a maximum of 18 months given to the consultant to do the study or to the tender period.

It should be borne in mind that such a study cannot be stretched out for too long, or the study will become outdated by the time it is completed. This present state government plans to adopt as far as possible a bottom-up, rather than a top-down approach in the Master Transport Plan.

Finally, the present state government will also consider declassifying all the previous transport plans and they will be made available to interested public.

The writer is head of the Task Force on Public Education, Penang Transport Council .