The Penang government has denied that the construction of the Bayan Lepas Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system will have a RM24 billion price tag.

Penang state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow was responding to PKR’s Penanti assemblyperson Norlela Ariffin, who had questioned the cost of building the Penang LRT service.

She had compared the construction cost for the 30km-long LRT line, which she claimed was RM24 billion, to the RM21 billion spent building the 51km-long Sungai Buloh-Kajang Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line.

Chow, however, insisted that the cost of the Bayan Lepas LRT from Komtar to Penang South Reclamation’s Island B was estimated to be RM8.4 billion.

This, he said, was stated in the request for proposal (RFP) document submitted by construction company SRS Consortium to the Penang state government.

"As stated in my earlier clarification on the Penang Transport Master Plan cost, dated June 19, 2017, the actual project cost for the projects will only be finalised after detailed engineering design and open tenders are completed.

"These will only be carried out after the required approvals are obtained from the federal government," said Chow in a Facebook post yesterday.

Chow is in charge of overseeing local government, traffic management and flood mitigation in the state.

Responding to Chow on the same social media platform, Norlela said that the state DAP chairperson's explanation meant that the total cost for the Penang Transport Master Plan was RM27 billion, including the LRT, Pan Island Link, two roads and a monorail.

"I will rectify my (previous) Facebook post. Didn't expect that Chow would come out with a media statement to clarify," she added.