Fifth EIA rejection! Penang CM must keep his promise

The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee calls on the Penang state government to immediately honour Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow’s public commitment to grant no further extension to PLB Engineering Berhad, after the Department of Environment’s EKAS database showed that the Jelutong landfill rehabilitation and land reclamation project had failed to obtain environmental impact assessment approval for the fifth consecutive time.

According to the Department of Environment’s EKAS listing, checked on 30 April, PLB Engineering Berhad’s fifth environmental impact assessment submission, received on 18 March, is marked “Tidak diluluskan” (Not approved).

This fifth submission came 20 days after the chief minister’s stated deadline of 26 February 2026, and the rejection is now confirmed 63 days after that deadline expired.

This is no longer a technical delay. It is a clear regulatory pattern: five submissions, over 684 days, and five rejections.

For the families of Bandar Sri Pinang, Jelutong and Karpal Singh Drive, this is not an abstract planning dispute. It is about the place they live beside, the public park they were promised, the landfill rehabilitation they support, and the land reclamation they never consented to.

“Residents have waited patiently because they trusted the process and the chief minister’s word,” said Dr K Ganesh, the chairperson of ProtectKarpal.

“But a public promise must mean something. When the EIA deadline has passed, and when the project has now been rejected five times by the Department of Environment, the state government must stop hiding behind process. The reclamation must end. The park must begin.”

Five submissions, five rejections

ProtectKarpal records the following environmental impact assessment submission history from the Department of Environment EKAS system:

Source: Department of Environment EKAS system, accessed 30 April 2026.

ProtectKarpal stresses that the community is not opposed to the safe rehabilitation of the Jelutong landfill. That work is urgent and long overdue. The committee also accepts, in principle, responsible on-land development on rehabilitated ground.

What the community rejects is the coastal land reclamation component, which has no democratic mandate, no environmental approval and no moral legitimacy after five failed environmental impact assessment attempts.

A promise to the community

On 24 June 2025, Chief Minister Chow publicly committed that the Penang state government would grant no further extension to PLB Engineering Berhad if the environmental impact assessment approval was not obtained before 26 February 2026. That commitment was reported in Buletin Mutiara, the state government’s own publication.

The deadline has now expired. The fourth environmental impact assessment was rejected after that date.

A fifth EIA was then submitted on 18 March 2026, without public announcement, without community notification, and without explanation of how such a submission was consistent with the chief minister’s commitment.

ProtectKarpal asks one simple question: If the chief minister’s pledge meant what it said, how was a fifth environmental impact assessment submission allowed after the deadline had already expired?

Not part of the promise

The record shows that the project’s most controversial element – coastal reclamation – has expanded without meaningful public consent.

In 2016, PLB Engineering Berhad’s revised tender response did not propose coastal reclamation.

After signing the joint development agreement in 2020, Chow stated publicly that “up to 10 acres” of additional land would be reclaimed.

By the 2025 public display of the environmental impact assessment, the reclamation component had grown to 70 acres.

This expansion took place without adequate public explanation, without meaningful community consent, and without state assembly debate proportionate to the scale of the change.

The public response has been equally clear: 98.6% of public consultation feedback opposed the reclamation component.

ProtectKarpal’s demands

ProtectKarpal calls on the Penang state government, the chief minister, the Penang Development Corporation and all relevant authorities to immediately:

• Honour the 24 June 2025 pledge by confirming publicly that no further extension will be granted to PLB Engineering Berhad
• Terminate the developer’s mandate under the 21 February 2020 joint development agreement, given the five environmental impact assessment rejections and the failure to meet the stated deadline
• Release all DoE rejection letters issued to the state government and to the PDC, including the full grounds for all five environmental impact assessment rejections
• Permanently remove the coastal reclamation component from any future plan for the Jelutong landfill site
• Proceed with safe landfill rehabilitation and responsible on-land development, including the quality public park long promised to the people of Jelutong
• Gazette Middle Bank as a marine sanctuary and commission an independent health impact assessment before any site work proceeds

ProtectKarpal also calls on the people of Penang, civil society organisations, environmental groups, residents’ associations and members of the press to insist on transparency, accountability and a development model that protects both people and place.

The committee requests that Chow responds publicly by 7 May 2026.

“Five rejections are not a small administrative setback,” said Ganesh. “They are a public warning.

“Penang can still choose the better path: rehabilitate the landfill, protect the coast, honour the promise, and give the people the park they were told would come.” – ProtectKarpal

The Protect Karpal Singh Drive action committee operates under the auspices of the Bandar Sri Pinang Pulau Pinang Residents’ Association.

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