Cost of Bayan Lepas LRT has not escalated

GEORGE TOWN: The cost for the Bayan Lepas Light Rail Transit (LRT) project has not escalated, said Penang Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

He said the RM8.4 billion figure stated in the Request for Proposal (RFP) documents includes the construction cost, land acquisition cost, and other costs like design and fees.

He said the RM7 billion figure being cited in news reports was for constructing the LRT and did not include land acquisition costs of RM1 billion.

Chow also pointed out the estimated construction cost for the Bayan Lepas project would be different from the RM9 billion LRT3 line which spans 37km from Bandar Utama to Johan Setia in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the two projects were dissimilar, pointing out the Bayan Lepas line will have more stations per km, approximately one kilometre per station, compared to the LRT3 where it will have approximately 1.4km per station.

"Almost 50% of the Bayan Lepas LRT alignment is sited on poor coastal ground conditions," he said in a statement yesterday after MCA enquired about the costs for the project.

Chow said the construction cost is estimated based on preliminary studies during the RFP stage.

"Actual cost can only be determined when the work packages are tendered out to the public.

"Each project will have unique features that are distinctive from the project it is compared against," he said.

On the issue where it was alleged the Penang government approved a high rise project at Tanjung Tokong in only eight days, Chow said the claim was not true.

He said the application for the project was submitted on Oct 27, 2014, by Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd and was only approved on Feb 17, 2015, a total of 113 days later.