KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng agrees that there should be more bridges linking Malaysia and Singapore to ease traffic flow but the republic must first agree to such a proposal.
“We cannot decide on the matter on our own. We have to discuss it with Singapore, and get their agreement,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
He was asked to comment on Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that there should be three or four more bridges between the two countries.
He pointed out that the traffic flow was heavier in Singapore than in Penang, yet Penang was already planning a third link – an undersea tunnel – between the island and the mainland.
Malaysia and Singapore are now served by the Causeway and the Second Link.
Mahathir first proposed the idea for a third bridge during his first tenure as prime minister.
When Singapore did not express interest, he envisioned widening the Malaysian half of the Causeway into an S-shaped six-lane bridge that would enable vessels to pass underneath.
This became the infamous “crooked bridge”.
The idea was dropped by his successor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he assumed the premiership in 2003.
