THIRD PENANG LINK: ANOTHER MEGA PROJECT?

Aliran is alarmed that the Penang state government is likely to embark on a mega project, a third link between Penang island and the mainland. The 7.6 km link, in the form of a bridge-cum-tunnel, is one of six options proposed in a Penang Urban Transport Study. The study was carried out by British consultant Halcrow Fox at a cost of RM1.6 million.

We fail to understand why the Penang government should be considering a mega project at a time of great economic uncertainty. Indeed, mega projects are largely to blame for the economic and environmental mess we now find ourselves in.

We accept that the Penang Bridge has now reached saturation point with the expansion of the industrial zones on both sides of the bridge and the connection to the North-South Expressway. But one of the main reasons for the huge volume of traffic on the bridge is the drastic scaling down of the ferry service linking George Town and Butterworth.

Why has the government allowed the ferry service to operate at half the capacity it was running at in the early 1980s? Double-decker vehicular ferries were converted to vehicular-cum-passenger ferries in the late 1980s. Where there were two ferry terminals operating side-by-side with a total of four berths in the early 1980s, today there is only one terminal with two berths. One of the two terminals was closed down after a tragic accident, never to be re-opened or reconstructed. The number of ferries in operation has been halved.

All this has contributed to commuters preferring to use the bridge rather than wasting time in long queues at the ferry terminals.  Could it be that the ferry services were scaled down to encourage greater use of the bridge so that the bridge operators could recover their investment outlay more quickly?

Tourists and island residents alike have complained about the worsening traffic congestion on the island.  The authorities are trying to solve the congestion on the bridge by building a third link without giving a serious thought as to how the narrow streets of Penang can cope with the increased heavy traffic.  The last thing Penang needs now is a  third link that will only encourage more vehicles to flow into the island and worsen the traffic jams.

Aliran instead urges the Penang government to
· immediately reconstruct and re-open the damaged ferry terminal,
· increase the number, size, speed, and frequency of ferries operating between the island and the mainland, and
· construct more ferry terminals, as and when necessary, on different parts of the island and the mainland.

Anil Netto
Exco member
5 May 1998