Schools and home want Penang’s PIL 1 away from them

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 6): Penang’s Pan Island Link 1 (PIL 1) seems to be liked and loathed by a lot of people at the same time.

In the latest development, some schools and community representatives in Penang are calling on the state government to change the alignment of PIL 1, reported The Star today.

They say PIL 1’s six-lane highway along Jalan Gottlieb will negatively impact nine schools in the area, and St Nicholas’ Home Penang, reported the English daily.

“There are 6,000 students and 500 teachers in the schools and institutions on this stretch. And, PIL 1 will definitely affect their physical and mental well-being,” said the group’s spokesman Daniel Soon at a media conference yesterday.

The group also handed a petition with 2,000 signatures and a memorandum to the state government at Komtar.

Soon is also St Nicholas’ Home executive director.

Representatives of Penang Chinese Girls’ School, Penang Chinese Girls’ School Alumni, Phor Tay School Alumni and Phor Tay Institution were also at the event.

The Star reported that Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) special purpose vehicle chief Datuk Lim Hock Seng and Komtar assemblyman Teh Lai Heng received the memorandum on behalf of the Penang government.

Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow announced in July that PIL 1 will allow direct access from Gurney Drive to Gottlieb Road, Youth Park, Sungai Keluang and the Second Penang Bridge.

“PIL 1 will allow motorists to travel from north to south in 15 minutes when currently it takes more than 30 minutes travelling time,” he added.

Chow said PIL1 will become a strategic bypass for traffic dispersal during peak hours.

Last month, some residents in Penang voiced their unhappiness over PIL 1.

According to these residents, the then part of the state opposition and Chow had opposed the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) more than 15 years ago.

"We are confused. In 2002, when Chow was in the Opposition, he stood with us against PORR.

“Now that he is Chief Minister, we are seeing PORR reborn as PIL 1 (Pan Island Link 1),” said the Tanjung Bungah Residents’ Association chair­man and Sahabat Alam Malaysia secretary Meenakshi Raman.

Other Penangites, however, are sick of traffic jams along the roads to the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone and have thrown their weight behind the contentious PTMP via a petition supporting the project.

Representatives from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (Penang Branch) last month submitted a petition with over 100 signatures requesting that the PTMP project be hastened to ease the commute of their workers.