The Penang state government was rapped by a non-governmental organisation for its lack of urgency to build a monorail on the island, revealed by a state executive councillor to materialise only in five to 10 years.

"Will these politicians be around then to really fulfill their promise?" asked Ong Boon Keong of Penang-based Malaysian Local Democracy Initiative (Malodi), formed three years ago to enhance participatory democracy in local governance.

Councillor Koay Kar Huah's revelation, which was reported in several Chinese dailies, came after Penang Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon's announcement last week that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was "enthusiastic and positive" about the island's proposed monorail project.

Koh was reported in The Star last Thursday as saying that the proposed project and public transportation system would solve the problem of parking space shortage which was compounded by the increasing numbers of cars and residents in the state which has a population of 1.2 million people.

The chief minister stressed that there should be an integrated solution to Penang's traffic woes and that an outer ring road is needed to allow people to travel faster.

In his press release on Saturday, Ong, however, noted that compared with the controversial RM1.02 billion Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project scheduled to be completed in 2005, the monorail proposal appeared to lack urgency.

"Since the prime minister had given the nod, why wait so long to carry out the plan?" he asked.

Long term, cost-effective

According to Ong, public transport system experts have said that the outer ring road is only a short-term measure to Penang's traffic woes whereas the monorail project is a long-term solution.

Koay had also said that the monorail project would be more cost-effective, Ong added.

"The three routes proposed (Batu Ferringhi-Komtar-Bayan Lepas, Komtar-Air Itam and Komtar-Butterworth) are close to 10 times the length of the PORR which is 17km, yet cost only two times more than the outer ring road.

"So, why the choice of implementing the PORR over the monorail?"

Ong also urged the state government to reveal the monorail project plan to the public.