The land where the carpark nearby the Sri Muniswarar Temple is to be built.
LACK of parking at the Sri Muniswarar Temple in Jalan Baru, Prai on Penang mainland may soon be a thing of the past once a new open air carpark is completed by December.
Temple president Datuk N. Gobalakrishnan said the RM700,000 carpark would be able to cater to 450 vehicles.
He said state government land measuring 2ha was allocated to the temple through the Penang Endowment Board.
“The temple will bear the construction cost and devotees will be able to park for free once it is ready.
“Construction will be carried out in two phases,” said Gobalakrishnan after the ground-breaking ceremony for the new carpark at the temple grounds.
Chow (centre) with (from left) Satees, Gobalakrishnan, Ramasamy and David Marshel at the ground-breaking event for the building of a carpark at the Sri Muniswarar Temple in Prai.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow was the guest of honour.
Chow said the carpark was necessary considering the temple’s popularity as it had a history stretching back 150 years.
“Besides the Hindu community, people of other races also visit the temple. They are not only locals but foreigners as well,” he said.
Chow also praised the temple management committee for its charitable activities as well as corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in helping the needy.
“The temple provides educational aid for students from B40 families and also gives human capital development,” he added.
Chow said since 2019, the Penang government had increased its yearly allocation from RM1.75mil to RM2mil to all 28 primary Tamil schools in the state.
He said the state government had increased the allocation for Tamil kindergartens from RM100,000 to RM150,000.
“The Tamil schools’ special allocation was increased from RM100,000 to RM150,000 and from RM60,000 to RM90,000 for Punjabi schools,” added Chow.
Gobalakrishnan added that the temple had recently given out revision books worth RM50,000 to all Year Six pupils at all Tamil schools in Penang.
Also present were Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy, Bagan Dalam assemblyman M. Satees, Seberang Prai city councillor P. David Marshel and Penang Hindu Endowment Board executive director Datuk M. Ramachandran.
