[UPDATED] PSI project has final approval from Putrajaya, says Penang CM

GEORGE TOWN – The revised Penang South Island (PSI) mega reclamation project has received final approval from the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said in a press conference here that the approval has 71 conditions attached under an elaborate environmental management plan.

He added that reclamation work should begin in earnest soon.

Green groups, fishing communities and other activists have relentlessly opposed the PSI project, citing concerns over environmental degradation and loss of livelihoods.

Chow, however, stressed that earthworks or reclamation at the shoreline would only begin once the 71 conditions under the environmental management plan are completed by the project delivery partner – the South Reclamation Scheme (SRS) Consortium Sdn Bhd.

SRS consists of a venture between Gamuda Group, Loh Phoy Yen Holdings Sdn Bhd, and Ideal Property Development Sdn Bhd.

Gamuda owns 60% of SRS, followed by Loh Phoy Yen with 20% and Ideal with 20%.

Chow said that with the letter of approval dated April 11, Penang was set to reclaim all three islands under PSI, although work would only begin on the first island on the coast next to the Bayan Lepas airport runway.

The 71 conditions, he said, included the social impact management plan and an ecology offset master plan.

The reclamation project is a state government initiative to underwrite the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan through the reclamation of the three islands covering 1,620ha off Permatang Damar Laut.

Meanwhile, Penang Forum executive council member Lim Mah Hui said that there is nothing much that the umbrella of NGOs opposing the mega project can do now that the authorities have given approval on the matter.

However, he suggested that the matter can be challenged in court.

“We now have to leave it to Meena (Meenaskhi Raman, the president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia) to look at possible legal action,” he told The Vibes.

Meenaskhi had helped a group of fishermen win an appeal to the Environment Department (DoE) Appeals’ Board after they successfully argued that their livelihoods might be undermined.

Lim said that the NGOs believed the project would negatively affect the state’s ecology and end up as another “white elephant” in the long term.

Another activist Khoo Salma Nasution had called for the social impact assessment of the project to be made available for public scrutiny.

She also urged the SRS to make public the 71 conditions that the authorities are seeking before the actual project could commence.

Chow, meanwhile, expects the project to begin by the third quarter of this year after it was delayed when approval of the original environmental impact assessment was revoked by the DoE after the appeal from the fishermen. – The Vibes, April 26, 2023