GEORGE TOWN (Oct 25): The Penang government today said it was disappointed with the non-governmental organisation, Penang Forum, for making baseless accusations about the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project planned from KOMTAR to Bayan Lepas.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the public viewing of the study on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project was held in August 2017, and the EIA for the LRT project was displayed for public viewing from July 19 to Aug 17, 2017.

The Penang Forum had questioned why the EIA for the LRT was not displayed for public viewing.

The current public inspection is ongoing from Aug 19 to Nov 19, 2019. 

"We are disappointed with the Penang Forum, which is spreading untrue information and making baseless accusations about the state government.

“The public viewing does not involve the EIA as it was conducted in 2017. What is shown is about the LRT rail system which must be displayed for three months to get public feedback,” he told reporters here today.

In an article titled "Penang's Bayan Lepas LRT: Glorious legacy or white elephant project" published in an English Language portal on Oct 22, Penang Forum member Khoo Salma Nasution questioned the EIA report for the project which she said was not displayed for public inspection.

Chow said although the EIA was required for the LRT project, it had been conducted before and was now being updated and can be accessed from the Department of Environment’s website.

“There is no need for the EIA for the LRT project to be publicly displayed any more as there are only additions and improvements to the first EIA which imposed specific conditions to be met,” he said.

Last Friday, Chow announced that the public display of the LRT project held in several places had received positive feedback.

He said SRS Consortium which was the project delivery partner had reported that so far, there has been 16,140 feedback, with 15,760 supporting the LRT project while 380 or 2.35 per cent were against it.