The open-air carpark and low buildings on the left, opposite Botanic Gardens Department’s office along Jalan Kebun Bunga, will be turned into a multistorey carpark with food court and other amenities as part of the Penang cable car project. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star
The Penang Hill cable car project will include a major upgrade to public infrastructure supporting Penang Botanic Gardens in George Town.
About 400m before the front gate to the gardens in Jalan Kebun Bunga, an arch and boom gate will block the road and the stretch to the garden will be turned into a pedestrian promenade under shady trees.
Motorists will no longer be allowed to drive in, as a multi- storey carpark will be built to replace an open-air parking area. There will also be a hawkers complex.
The cable car station will be off to the west of the garden’s front gate, in a small garden measuring about half a hectare near the entrance to Penang Rifle Club.
Penang Hill Corporation general manager Datuk Cheok Lay Leng said the project would solve parking problems and traffic congestion along Jalan Kebun Bunga while improving public facilities for those wanting to enjoy Penang Botanic Gardens.
“Anyone who goes to the gardens, particularly on weekend mornings, will attest to how bad the jam is there.
“There is not enough parking even now so visitors park along both sides of the road, leaving only a narrow path for cars from both sides to pass,” he said.
He added that an extensive study was being carried out on the volume of visitors so that the multistorey carpark would be built to meet demand and there would even be an upgraded food court.
Cheok clarified that though the cable car system would be built to handle a maximum of 1,000 passengers per hour, the public should not assume it would send that many people to Penang Hill.
“Even with the funicular train, there are many trips in a week when the train goes up empty, but it still goes up because it has to bring people from the hilltop down.
“So just because the cable car will have the capacity, it doesn’t mean the hilltop will be crowded with visitors,” he explained.
The cable car system will be built at an estimated cost of RM245mil.
Hartasuma Sdn Bhd, which received a 30-year concession of the project, is expected to start construction by next month and scheduled to take two years to complete.
