GEORGE TOWN – Long-time residents of a traditional fishing village in Gertak Sanggul on the southern coast of Penang island have expressed dismay at plans to remove the village for a hostel for foreign workers, touted to be the largest in Malaysia.
A total of 37 houses and a temple dedicated to Chinese god Qian Sui Gong in Kg Bagan – which is a few miles from Teluk Kumbar town – will be demolished to make way for the project that would cover nearly 5ha of land.
Sources told The Vibes that the project is still at the proposal stage with the state government, and that the application for planning permission has yet to be made by developer Syarikat Zantalite Enterprise Sdn Bhd.
The expected 2,100-room hostel will have the capacity to house about 35,000 workers.
It is understood that the project is to provide convenient accommodation for workers of the upcoming Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project and the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, which are nearby.
The residents are expected to be given temporary housing, in addition to some compensation from the developer.
A villager who only wanted to be known as Lee, 52, said the project will cause the already packed locale to become even more dense, as well as invite the likelihood of social problems.
“The Teluk Kumbar area is not big, so I do not understand why the state government chose this area to build hostels for foreign workers,” he told The Vibes.
“This is a fishing settlement. We have lived here for a long time. Don’t disturb our peace.”
Meanwhile, another villager who only wants to be known as Abu, 46, said Teluk Kumbar and Gertak Sanggul are mostly fishing villages with agricultural land and aquaculture businesses. He questioned the decision to build a hostel for foreigners who would mostly work in factories.
“This is not a heavy industry zone with big factories. The whole area consists of fishing villages and farms, so there is no reason to find hostels for foreign workers here,” he said.
Abu added that the narrow road leading to Teluk Kumbar and Gertak Sanggul is already experiencing traffic congestion during rush hour, and it will only get worse once the hostel opens.
“If there are hostels here, there will be factory buses that enter the area and cause more congestion here,” he said.
It is understood that the foreign workers’ hostel construction project will also be equipped with commercial buildings, office units, multi-storey car parks, petrol stations and other facilities.
Residents had protested in January last year when they learned that the state government was allowing the construction of hostels for foreign workers to house 12,000 foreign workers.
However, the application for planning permission for the project was later withdrawn by the developer in March last year. It is understood that the developer wanted to amend the plan with a larger hostel project.
Last December, state Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo announced that the Penang government planned to build a foreign workers’ hostel that would accommodate 35,000 foreign workers, which would be the largest in the country. – The Vibes, March 19, 2021
