Metro

Thursday July 2, 2009

Rapid development

By K. KASTURI DEWI


A PROPOSAL submitted by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB) and Rapid Pe-nang to the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to build a bus sub-depot next to the KGN flats in Weld Quay is expected to be approved within a month, state Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said.

He said the sub-depot on the 0.7ha plot owned by SPNB would be able to accommodate about 20 buses.

“The sub-depot will be convenient for buses leaving on early despatch from Weld Quay. It will take two months to be completed,” he told reporters during a visit to the site yesterday.

Rapid Penang’s other sub- depots are located in Tanjung Bungah, Balik Pulau and Batu Ferringhi while a similar depot is planned in Kepala Batas.

Room for 20 buses: An artist's impression of the proposed sub-depot for Rapid Penang.

Chow said Rapid Penang was also expanding its main depot in Sungai Nibong by 0.6ha to accommodate 90 more buses from the current 160 buses on its present 1.8ha site.

He said the expansion was ex-pected to be completed by the end of this month.

Other plans include converting the parking area next to the ferry terminal in Weld Quay into a temporary bus terminal and to have a bus interchange in Sungai Nibong in front of the express bus terminal.

“The other new interchanges will be at Farlim, Batu Ferringhi and Bukit Jambul,” Chow said.

He also said the MPPP would complete upgrading works at the Komtar bus interchange in three months.

Chow said the projects came under the second stimulus package.

“Since there is a time frame for these projects to be implemented, I have directed MPPP to speed up processing the necessary approvals,” he said.

Rapid Penang chief executive officer Azhar Ahmad, who was present during the visit, said the sub-depot in Weld Quay would be planted with a lot of trees.

He said Rapid Penang nee- ded the new facilities in view of the arrival of the 200 new buses.

“The first batch of 12 new buses arrived in June and we will take delivery of 12 new buses every two weeks,” he said.

Azhar said of the 30 buses that were leased from RapidKL, 10 would be returned this month and the rest later.

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