The controversial Penang undersea tunnel mega-project, which is to link the island to the mainland, has instead divided Penangites over who is telling the truth and who is lying on payments made to the project's main contractor.

Both Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow have accused each other of 'lying' over whether any payment was made for the RM6.3 billion venture which the state government inked with Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd in 2013.

Today, Teng said he was prepared to meet Lim in court, with the Lim taking up the dare, saying his lawyers would now examine Teng's statement that he had lied over details in the project, which is slated for implementation from 2023 to 2027.

"Since he said I can sue him, I will assume that he has addressed the issues stated in my press conference on Jan 17. I hope he does not wiggle out of it," Lim said in George Town today in response to Teng (photo).

At his press conference yesterday, Lim challenged Teng to say he had lied so that he could then take Teng to court to prove that he (Lim) was telling the truth.

"He (Teng) said Lim Guan Eng lied when he said not a single sen was paid to the contractor of the undersea tunnel project.

"I am going to sue him based on that and I hope he does not wiggle out of it and say he was talking about something else," Lim added.

"I will ask my lawyers to act, unlike Teng, he only said he will ask his lawyers to study what I said," Lim added.

At his press conference earlier today, Teng dared Lim to prove that documents provided by BN, which he claimed showed Lim had lied, were false documents.

To this, Lim said he had never referred to any BN document.

Lim reiterated that the Penang government had not made any payment to Zenith, even though the firm has completed 92 percent of the feasibility study for the project.

"We will only consider paying if it completes 100 percent of the study."

Lim has been intensively queried over several issues related to the project, including on whether an RM11.2 million payment was made to HSSI Sdn Bhd for the RM305 million feasibility study.

He was also asked why 50 acres of to-be-reclaimed land were swapped as payment for construction of three major highways tied to the undersea tunnel project.

Lim denied that payment had been made to Zenith for the tunnel project, saying the state had only paid RM208 million via 3.7 acres of a land swap for work done to obtain approval for the highways' EIA.

He stressed that HSSI was an independent engineering firm appointed by the Penang government via open tender to verify payments made to Zenith.

Towards this, HSSI was in charge of verifying claims for the feasibility study and not responsible for drawing up the EIA reports related to the highways, Lim said.

The mega-project is currently being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which has conducted several raids and made two arrests.