Road ‘not good enough’

CHIEF Minister Lim Guan Eng has come under fire for misleading the public that his administration had built an alternative road Jalan Bagan 29 for motorists to avoid paying 50 sen toll at the Sungai Nyior toll plaza in Butterworth.

Bagan MCA Youth chief David Chua said the former Barisan Nasional state government had built the alternative road Jalan Todak which connected Chai Leng Park and Seberang Jaya even before Pakatan Rakyat came into power in Penang.

“If the state is sincere in wanting to provide a proper alternative road, it should then build a parallel road next to the toll plaza.

“Jalan Bagan 29 in Taman Bagan is merely a service road that connects Jalan Siram and Jalan Bagan 1,” he told reporters at Taman Bagan in Butterworth yesterday.

Chua was commenting on the statement by Guan Eng during Saturday’s debate with MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek that the state had built an alternative road for motorists to avoid paying toll in Sungai Nyior.

■Making a point: Chua (left) with Bagan MCA deputy chairman Sum Yoo Keong discussing the map of Jalan Bagan 29 along the road in Butterworth, Penang.

He also claimed the DAP had failed to keep a pledge before the 2008 general election to abolish the Sungai Nyior toll col- lection.

“A posting on the DAP website dated Feb 25, 2007, quoted party leader Ng Wei Aik as saying that the Sungai Nyior toll would be abolished if Pakatan wins a parliamentary seat and four state seats, including the Prai seat, in the March 2008 general election,” he said.

Asked if MCA would recommend to the Federal Government for the toll collection to be abolished, Chua said the Federal Government had already intervened to reduce the toll rate from RM1 to 50 sen.

“The Federal Government is presently subsidising the remaining 50 sen in toll charges to the concession holder,” he said.

Chua also said the state spent RM5.7mil on the 1.5km-long Jalan Bagan 29, which he claimed was underutilised, noting that fewer than 500 people live on Jalan Siram.

“Most of the buildings on Jalan Siram are shophouses, apart from a Hindu cemetery near the Jalan Siram-Jalan Telaga Air junction,” he said.

Meanwhile, state Public Works, Utilities and Transport Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng said the state government was willing to consider building an alternative road next to the toll plaza provided it was consented by the Federal Government.

“The Federal Government must give us a guarantee that the concession holder overseeing toll collection in Sungai Nyior will not claim compensation from us for causing traffic ‘leakage’ along the stretch,” he said.

Hock Seng said the state was looking at the possibility of connecting Jalan Todak in Seberang Jaya with the Jalan Bagan 1-Jalan Bagan 29 junction via a flyover at an estimated cost of RM35mil.

Ng could not be reached for comment.

The Star
Tuesday February 21, 2012
By DERRICK VINESH