PENANG will be reclaiming two water bodies for an additional 5.9ha of land on top of the supposed 53.05ha reclamation at the Gurney Wharf site off Gurney Drive in June next year.
Penang local government, housing, town and country planning committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said physical works would commence in June.
“We anticipate the physical works to be completed after one year from its commencement in June.”
He said the water bodies on the northern part of the reclamation site were left there for the clover leaf road meant to be built in the original design.
“Now that there is a change of plan to build just a road intersection, the state decided to reclaim the two water bodies as well, ” he added.
“After the reclamation, we will then have a total of 30.1ha of land to be used as a public space.
“But we will not wait for the entire 30.1ha of land to be ready to start work as we are now in the midst of discussion for works to commence in phases, ” he said at a recent press conference in Komtar.
Jagdeep said the state hoped to start work on the components by early next year.
“To date, we have received 12.5ha of land on the south side of Gurney Wharf, near Jalan Pangkor where we want to start with the project.
“At the moment, we are looking at a promenade, skate park, a park, a children’s playground and most likely a man-made beach for the south side of Gurney Wharf.
“Then slowly, we will work upwards to the north side near Gurney Plaza.
“Up north, current hawkers will also be relocated to bigger areas and there will be a water taxi pier as well, ” he added.
He said the decision to reclaim two more water bodies would bring the public space area to 30.1ha, compared to the original 24.2ha of land.
“This is coupled with the 8ha of land originally meant for the road to be connected to the yet-to-be- constructed undersea tunnel.
“Since the road will not be constructed yet pending the execution of the undersea tunnel project, we decided to put the land to use as a public space, ” he said.
In the plans for public space, there will be facilities such as food courts, retail space, promenades, skate park, wetlands, man-made beach and a water taxi pier.
“This year, there have been three stages of land handover from Tanjung Pinang Development Sdn Bhd (TPD).
“The state received a total of 12.5ha of land from the developer this year and the next sectional handover of the reclaimed land will continue next year, ” he added.
The Gurney Wharf project is touted as the state’s seafront park-in-the-city project expected to be completed in 2021 at a cost of RM180mil.
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