Penang has appointed SRS Consortium as the Project Delivery Partner (PDP) for the RM27 billion Transport Master Plan to mitigate traffic congestion in the state by 2030.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today the decision was made by the state executive council on Aug 12 based on the company’s extensive expertise in mass rail transit and related public transport infrastructure as well as large-scale township development.

Lim said Penang faces the twin challenges of providing affordable housing and an effective and functional public transport system.

“Whilst the problem of affordable housing will be overcome when 22,515 homes are built over the next 5-7 years with another similar number built by the private sector, traffic congestion remains almost insurmountable,” he said at a press event today.

“The main obstacle is the refusal of the federal government to build a Light Rail Transit system or failing that, to issue a license to the state government to build and operate one,” he claimed.

Lim ( photo,left ) said the master plan was  'big bang' approach towards facing the big challenges of both traffic congestion and public transport by adopting the approach of 'moving people, not vehicles'.

He added that the next challenge will be constructing a financial architecture based on a land swap to finance the cost of at least RM27 billion to fund the master plan's proposals.

“This important issue will only be addressed when all licensing approvals have been secured from the federal government by SRS Consortium,” Lim said.

Lim also said SRS Consortium comprises well-known names in the engineering, construction and property development industries.

Expenses borne by SRS

These include publicly-listed Gamuda Berhad (60%) Penang-based Loh Phoy Yen Holdings Sdn Bhd (20%) and Ideal Property Development Sdn Bhd (20%).

“The companies will be working closely with the state government in the next six months to ascertain the detailed execution of the master plan, engineering designs, gathering public feedback and most crucially, obtaining all state and federal approvals for each component,” Lim said.

“We emphasise that all costs and expenses incurred will be fully-borne by SRS Consortium in the event that no approval for each component is obtained from the federal government,” he revealed.

“In other words SRS Consortium fully bears the risk of expenses and costs incurred which will only be met by the project proceeding when federal government approval is obtained,” Lim stressed.