CHIEF Minister Chow Kon Yeow has revealed that the initial agreement for the reclamation project along the Butterworth shore was inked ‘without a deadline’.
“It was approved in 1999 and there was no time frame fixed for the completion of the reclamation project. It was an ‘open ended agreement’,” Chow answered a question by a journalist today.
He was commenting on the Land Reclamation and Resettlement Agreement (LRRA) which was first inked in 1999 between the Penang government and Rayston Consortium (Butterworth) Sdn Bhd (RCSB).
It was reported that the LRRA was made following the concession agreement between the Federal Government and Lingkaran Luar Butterworth (Penang) Sdn Bhd to build, operate, manage and maintain the Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR).
Based on the terms set by the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department at that time, Lingkaran Luar Butterworth (Penang) Sdn Bhd was a ‘special purpose vehicle’ and could not execute other functions other than to build, operate, manage and maintain the BORR.
Therefore, a separate agreement (the LRRA) was made to carry out the land reclamation and relocation of the affected ground tenants due to the BORR project. As compensation, RCSB was given the rights to reclaim, and develop the reclaimed land at Bagan Ajam.
Chow said the current Penang government had renegotiated with RCSB and signed a supplementary agreement to fix a time frame for RCSB to complete the land reclamation works.
“According to the supplementary agreement, the company must complete the land reclamation within six years after obtaining the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval. At least we rectified the problem.
“The supplementary agreement also enabled the Penang government to gain additional land as compared to the original agreement inked in 1999,” he said.
It was reported that the state would be gaining an additional 77.41ha of land through the supplementary agreement. The supplementary agreement was signed in September last year (2018).
Story by Christopher Tan
Pix by Alissala Thian
Video by Noor Siti Nabilah Noorazis