Penang BN denies selling land for RM1 per sq ft

GEORGE TOWN, March 19 – Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) has denied that the previous state administration had sold the Seri Tanjung Pinang land for RM1 per sq ft as alleged by Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng.

Penang Gerakan local government bureau chief Teh Leong Meng, who is also a former Penang Island Municipal councillor, said Lim’s accusations were misleading and mischievous.

“The premium of RM1 per sq ft is not the sales price as there was no land and the state government could not sell the sea,” he told a press conference today.

He said, at that time, there was no land to sell so technically the state government did not sell the land.

He pointed out that the Seri Tanjung Pinang land deal agreement only stated that the premium of RM1 per sq ft is for alienable land.

“The developer still has to reclaim the land, bear the cost of reclamation, build low cost and low medium cost apartments, pay for the premium for conversion so the land did not only cost the developer just RM1 per sq ft,” he said.

Last week, Lim had accused the previous BN-led state government of selling the Seri Tanjung Pinang land for only RM1 per sq ft when in other similar land reclamation projects, like Bayan Mutiara, the premium was priced at RM240 per sq ft.

The current Pakatan Rakyat state government had used part of the Seri Tanjung Pinang land, 110 acres, as a land swap in exchange for the controversial RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel and three highways project in the island.

Part of the land deal in the Seri Tanjung Pinang contract states that the developer must set aside 10 per cent of the reclaimed land for the state government.

Teh insisted that the premium price for the reclaimed land is not the sale price of the land.

Instead, he accused the state government of giving out the 110 acres of land “free” to Consortium Zenith BUCG in exchange for the RM6.3 billion infrastructure project.

Teh claimed the contractor, who was given the concessionaire for the undersea tunnel, would be able to recover the costs of the project through the 30-year concession on the tunnel.

“They would be able to collect RM6.57 billion in toll from the tunnel in 30 years, more than the cost of the whole project so the state government is actually giving out the land for free,” he said.

He is basing the toll collection on the assumption that a toll of RM10 is collected from each vehicle and the tunnel sees a traffic of 60,000 vehicles per day.

In an immediate response to Teh’s denials , Lim said Penang BN is obviously lying.

“BN has to explain why they sold the alienable land at RM1 per sq ft.”

“If they say the developer has to pay for the land reclamation, Bayan Mutiara is the same but the premium was RM240 per sq ft and not RM1 per sq ft,” he said.

As for the accusations that the state is giving out the land “free”, Lim told Penang BN not to simply “pick a figure” pertaining to the toll collection and number of vehicles using the tunnel.

“The current Penang bridge only gets 80,000 vehicles each day, so how did they get their figure for the tunnel?” he asked.

The RM6.3 billion mega project has been under fire by civil societies and the Penang BN in recent times.

Lim had defended the state’s decision by stating the need for the massive project to disperse traffic on the island and to provide an alternative link to the mainland.