Trees to be transplanted for road widening project

Hard at work: MBPP contractors looking at the new area where the trees at Jalan Masjid Negeri will be relocated.

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Is­­land City Council (MBPP) is going ahead with the road widening pro­ject in Jalan Masjid Negeri, requiring 16 trees to be transplanted elsewhere by end of next month.

Its traffic engineer Zainuddin Mohamad Shariff said the contractor assigned to transplant the trees had been asked to file the method of statement before any transplanting could commence.

“The statement will explain the method to be taken when transplanting the trees.

“It will then be reviewed by the Forest Research Institute Malay­sia and the project should start next month,” he said.

MBPP arborist Azizul Fahmi Muhamad said the trees would be relocated to a nearby residential area off Jalan Masjid Negeri.

It was reported that the construction cost for the 1.8km road widening project along Jalan Mas­jid Negeri is RM7.85mil and the land acquisition cost RM11mil.

The project will involve the Jalan Scotland-bound stretch start­­ing from the Lorong Batu Lanchang-Jalan Masjid Negeri junction to the Ja­­­lan Air Itam-Jalan Masjid Negeri junction.