THE federal government today announced the provision of additional funds to expedite construction of the Penang Light Rail Transit (LRT) project. 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the previous federal government had not provided enough funds for several years, especially for the urgent infrastructure development in Penang. 

“I had a discussion with the Minister of Transport yesterday and I will also hold a discussion with the state government in the next one or two weeks to find a suitable approach to bear the high cost of LRT construction,” he said at the Malaysia Madani Aidilfitri open house today.  

He hoped the project would ease the problem of traffic congestion in the state. 

“We have LRT, MRT and monorail in the Klang Valley…why can’t we introduce it to the second largest city in our country?” he asked. 

The LRT project is one of the main components of the Penang Transport Master Plan, a long-term strategy to overcome traffic congestion in the state. 

The Penang government’s plan for the construction of the LRT line is to connect Bayan Lepas and Komtar. 

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the federal government had decided in principle to implement the Penang LRT project. 

He said the focus now was to implement this project as soon as possible. 

“The federal government is ready to finance this project, but the financing model and mechanism need to be discussed in detail… whether through funds from development or off-budget, or through PPP (Public-Private Partnership), we’ll need further details,” he said. – Bernama, May 6, 2023.