Shoplots to make way for new project

GEORGE TOWN: About 40 business premises and some residential homes along Jalan Bayan Lepas will soon have to make way for an overhead road project connecting Pekan Bayan Lepas to Teluk Kumbar.

State Works, Utilities and Transportation Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng said the RM207mil Federal project would also affect the Bayan Lepas police station and its quarters, the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) quarters and the Bayan Lepas community hall.

“The project is to upgrade the Federal road from Teluk Kumbar to the Penang International Airport. It’s expected to be completed in August next year,” he said.

The project consists of two overhead bridges – a four-lane, 750m elevated structure from Jalan Teluk Kumbar to the airport and also an elevated U-turn.

It will also see the 3km stretch of the one-lane road from Jalan Teluk Kumbar to Jalan Bayan Lepas upgraded to a two-lane road.

The project is one of four traffic dispersal projects designed to help ease traffic after the second Penang Bridge was opened in in March.

The other three projects are the upgrading of the Bayan Lepas Expressway (BLE) from the bridge exit, upgrading of the state road from Jalan Negeri in Batu Maung to Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and building a bridge across the Batu Maung junction-cum-roundabout.

It was reported that the total cost of the four projects was RM825mil.

Ng Kok Lam, 52, who owns three bicycle shops on the row of shoplots, welcomed the project as it would reduce the congestion and attract more people to the town.

“But I’m not sure if I will continue to run the business somewhere else or call it a day,” he said.

Ng said he had received his compensation and would need to evict within 30 days.

MCA’s Bayan Lepas branch chairman Ong Hoy Chin, 63, who runs a tailor shop there, said the project was a timely move.

“The number of vehicles here has increased. It could help ease the traffic jam,” he said.

Fabric shop owner Mohamad Sithik Askar, 30, said his business would be affected by the project.

“We’ve been running this business for the past 70 years. Now I’ve to find another place,” he said.