Still no green light for LRT construction work in Penang
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said, although the official notice from the Transport Ministry has yet to be issued, several preliminary works had already been carried out on site, including soil investigations, land acquisition and compensation negotiations with the involved landowners.
"The official notice is important to enable full-scale physical construction works according to the planned schedule and plans.
"At the moment, we are still waiting for official instructions from the ministry and MRT Corp," he said after officiating the Penang Transport Day 2025 here today.
The 29.5km Mutiara Line LRT includes 21 strategic stations and designed to enhance connectivity between Penang island and the mainland, thereby reducing road congestion and improving accessibility.
The main route plan covers the route from Penang Silicon Island to Penang Sentral and the Komtar station in George Town, with train services scheduled to operate alternately along the route.
Chow said the state government has fulfilled its responsibilities by fully handing over the roles related to the LRT project to MRT Corp and releasing SRS Consortium from its previous role as the party that applied for the LRT implementation before.
"The state government's relationship with SRS is now within the context of the other Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) projects, but for the LRT project, it has been taken over by MRT.
"So now the main responsibility lies with the federal government to issue the notice," he added.
Asked on the expected date for the issuance of the Notice to Proceed, Chow said the preliminary information received earlier stated it would be issued within a month or two.
"Last month, I mentioned one or two months, so the second month is this month. Hopefully, it will really be issued this month," he said.
Meanwhile, Chow said, as experienced in the LRT construction project in Kuala Lumpur, it was important for contractors to ensure that any road space taken in the course of construction, is replaced with road widening on the shoulders or side areas to maintain the existing number of lanes.
"In Bandar Baru Air Itam, for example, the area used for road construction was replaced by taking land on the sides to ensure the two-lane route remains functional," he said.
He added that, currently, the state government has no plans to impose any congestion charges because the priority now is to ensure smooth project implementation and traffic management throughout the construction period.
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