Penang wants PM to retain PORR, monorail

The Penang Government will request for the RM1.5bil Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) and RM2bil monorail projects to be reinstated, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Lim said he would personally make the request to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Northern Corridor Implementation Agency meeting tomorrow.

Lim said Abdullah had publicly announced three mega projects for Penang under the Ninth Malaysia Plan but only the second Penang Bridge was retained under the Mid-Term Review of the plan.

“They had publicly announced the goodies in 2006. Clearly, they do not mean what they say and they do not say what they mean,” he said after a courtesy call by state police chief Deputy Comm Ayub Yaakob at his office in Komtar here yesterday.

“We, the state government, will not be rendered helpless. They may remove all the projects but we will show them that Penangites can overcome these challenges,” he said.

Lim added that the state government had received many proposals from private companies to carry out the monorail project and numerous other projects in the state.

“We received a lot of proposals because the state government practises the CAT (competency, accountability and transparency) philosophy. They do not have to go through middlemen and then give discounts or commissions or bribe anyone,” he said. - By The Star

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