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Page 11
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

THE STATE GOVERNMENT had a good scolding from the minister. One year had elapsed and yet work on the Telok Bahang - Penang Hill cable car system had not even started, he grumbled.

Now this public spanking was totally undeserved. In fact there is no such project. Only six months before that the parliamentary secretary to the ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia had pointed out that the plan was for a cable car link, not from Telok Bahang, but from the Youth Park.  Neither did Dr Ting Hock Nam, chief of environment and traffic committee, know about Telok Bahang.

The Deputy chief minister surprisingly support the minister. But he was more reasonable. He thought an amendment should be made to the Penang Hill Local Plan to include the project. A cautious  Dr Toh Kee Woon, of state exco, said that care should be taken to see that such a scheme did not hurt the environment

The Friends of Penang Hill (FOPH) president S M Idris did not mince his words. The proposal to to amend the Penang Hill Local Plan (gazetted April) and the draft of the Penang Island Structure Plan to include the minister's pet cable car system  would make a mockery of past procedures. Even the Youth Park route would have to wait for improvements to the funicular railway before a final decision was taken. FOPH points out that in the Hill plan it was stated that only when passengers reached 7000 a day would the cable car be considered 

But FOPH is against any form of cable car transport. The state should consider the dangers of the cable car system as shown in the disaster in July last year in France when more than 20 persons died. In the interests of the people of Penang the idea should be scrapped. The president of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry Penang Dato Nazir Arif is also against. 

The minister's mystery cable car became less of secret when the CM referred to it as a RM200 millions project. The state planning committee would look into "a proposal" to review the Hill plan to accommodate it

What's going on? Are the backers of the mystery cable car gaining the upper hand over those behind  the Youth Park route? What is this RM200 millions plan? Who is putting up the money? Who proposed it, and when?  DAP's women's section wants the CM to tell public. 

With such incitement to scepticism it is not surprising that when the MPPP opened its doors for a public discussion of the Island Draft Structure plan last month only a handful turned up; dedicated optimists perhaps? #