This plan, the draft Penang Structure Plan 2040, is already well in progress. It has been put up for public display and feedback – but chances are, most people in Penang are not even aware of it.
Look at it closely, and you will see that it looks like a developers’ and contractors’ dream. Plenty of ‘jobs for the boys’.
Lot of land reclamation sites all over – about 12 from the looks of it. That includes the ‘Penang Gateway’ (no. 9 on the map) reclamation project somewhere in Batu Ferringhi. The SRS-proposed Islands B and C in the south are still on the map – despite previous reports that the project would be scaled down to just one island. There’s another large reclamation site on the southeast of Penang Island. And look at the half a dozen reclamation sites on the mainland.
Who are they building for, when the birthrate in Penang has shrunk well below population replacement level? Seems to me that Greed has taken over.
Check out a new coastal ring highway on the east coast (no. 1).
The third crossing (the tunnel?) is still on the map (no 6). They never give up, do they?
And look at all the reclamation and ‘development’ slated for the area around Jerejak Island (no 9).
Why are they indicating a 150-metre contour line above sea level, when at present there is a limitation on development above 76 metres about sea level?
More LRT links here and there but I don’t see much in the way of better, cheaper, faster bus rapid transit and tram lines at street level. And where are the water taxi routes?
Remember, after 18 years since the change in government in 2008, we still don’t have a more detailed local plan, which governs the permissible development and zoning densities allowed in your neighbourhoods.
And all this while, most of the Penang public remain blissfully in the dark about what’s in store for them.
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