GEORGE TOWN: More than a decade after it was first mooted, the controversial RM6.3bil Penang Undersea Tunnel to ease chronic traffic problems looks to be stalled.
State infrastructure and transport committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the project was held up due to the delay in the release of the RM302mil feasibility study report on the undersea tunnel.
“Yes, there will be a delay in the feasibility report and it looks like there’s no clear timeline yet for the project to start.
“We will then be looking into the tunnel design and it looks like work will only begin beyond 2026 or further with at least five years for necessary approvals from the Federal Government and other relevant agencies,” he said in an interview.
The complete feasibility study report already missed its deadline in 2014 and again in 2016.
First proposed in 2011, the 7.2km Penang Undersea Tunnel project links Gurney Drive on the island with Bagan Ajam on the mainland in Penang.
The project is part of the RM46bil Penang Transport Master Plan meant to ease the perennial traffic congestion in the state.
However, the state government said it would only make a decision on the implementation of the project after considering written reviews from the Penang Port Commission and Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB), both which have strong reservations about the project.
Because of the latest delay in the undersea tunnel project, PPSB will now carry out its RM1bil expansion at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) as planned without waiting for it to get started.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Sasedharan Vasudevan said it had briefed the state on the terminal’s expansion plan last year after the realignment to accommodate the construction of the tunnel was carried out.
“We are looking to start reclamation works earliest in late 2026 or early 2027 when the first phase will begin.
“The NBCT expansion and the tunnel construction have turned out to be a contentious issue due to the clash of the construction routes although both agreed to co-exist and work together.
“We have realigned from an expansion plan for seven million twenty foot equivalent (TEUs) to 3.9 million TEUs by reducing the wharf infrastructure to 1km from 2.8km to accommodate the undersea tunnel,” he said.
Sasedharan said the port, which saw 1.5 million TEUs last year, would hit two million TEUs in 2030 and three million TEUs in 2040, which would be perfect to develop the first parcel of 223ha of land to meet the target.
PPSB has also now settled for a dredging depth of 13m to 14m to accommodate 8,000-tonne TEUs although it will need depths of 23m by 2045 to 2050 in line with the depths of the Strait of Malacca.
Only at that depth can huge hauliers move into the wharf without any issue.
“This is to bring it up to six million TEUs from businesses in the northern states, especially from Northern Perak, Kulim High Tech Park, Kedah Rubber City and Kota Perdana Free Trade Zone and South Thailand (which contributes to one-third of the container business),” he said.
Sasedharan also questioned how the undersea tunnel could be aligned with the 23m depth in the near future as there was an artificial island at the end of the proposed project in Bagan Ajam.
“We had planned the NBCT expansion since 2007 and there was no configuration for the tunnel project. Now, the project is set to start after more than 15 years,” he said.
