THE Penang government today said its financing model for the tunnel and highways project is similar to the one used by the Barisan Nasional state government to fund the construction of the Jelutong Expressway.

State local government and traffic management exco Chow Kon Yeow said reclaimed land was awarded to the contractors as progressive payments  in both projects.

He said Gerakan had claimed IJM, whose subsidiary Jelutong Development Sdn Bhd built the Jelutong Expressway (now renamed Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway), was only given land to develop Bandar Sri Pinang after completing the expressway.

Using that as comparison, he said Gerakan wanted him to answer if the present state government had given land to Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd before it even started building the highways.

Consortium Zenith is the contractor undertaking the tunnel and highways project.

“We are both state governments. The clauses (in agreements) are similar. Land will be alienated for reclamation according to the progress of the work. Grants will then be issued.

“It is not like what Gerakan is saying – that only after the expressway was finished that green light was given to the contractor to reclaim land and the land was alienated.

“That was a statement made without anyone doing their homework. Just ‘hentam’ (slam) to make some comparison to show things were done differently,” he told a press conference today.

Chow said people his age would know the Jelutong Expressway took years to complete – with surveys and earthwork beginning in 1999, two years after the project agreement was inked.

He said the reclamation started together with the earthworks.

“When the earthworks were completed, the contractor claimed for land payment, as per the agreement. 

“The land awarded was also made in stages, in tandem of work completed. That is what we are now doing,” he said.

Chow said the project agreement was sealed in 1997 but it took 18 years for the entire expressway to finish, with the last phase – now named Jalan Ahmad Nor – completed in January 2015.

After finishing the expressway, the contractor continued to reclaim land off the coast next to the road, he said.

“The IJM company has since built retail outlets, the Ocean View apartments, Pinang Court, Desa Pinang, hawker centre, church land, and surau on the land that was reclaimed while the first phase of the expressway was underway.

“If land was given after the expressway was completed, the IJM company would only had started to reclaim land in 2015.

“There is no logic for a company to invest so much money when it has to wait so many years to see the first piece of land. Nobody will be able to do this,” said Chow.

He also said the previous administration gave IJM 30 acres of prime land belonging to the state, which has since been used to build a Tesco hypermarket, E-Gate commercial outlets, Udini Square and several blocks of condominiums next to the expressway, for undertaking the infrastructure project, even before it was fully completed.

This was similar to how the present administration gave Consortium Zenith two plots of already reclaimed land worth RM208 million in Bandar Tanjong Pinang for completing the feasibility studies and detailed designs, he said.

Chow was answering questions directed at him by state Gerakan leaders on the mega project, which is under Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation.

He said he was asked to “properly answer” seven questions about the project, but he was only answering one – the last question related to IJM and the expressway.

He said the rest had already been addressed by him and state public works and transportation exco Lim Hock Seng in previous press conferences.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng again challenged MCA’s Dr Wee Ka Siong to answer why he lied about the state’s agreement with China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) not being stamped.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department had recently claimed the agreement with CRCC was not legally binding.

“Don’t run or try to avoid. Answer this,” he said. – February 2, 2018.