Water taxis to ply Melaka river soon, says exco member

ALOR GAJAH: Water taxis will finally be allowed to ferry passengers around the historic city, almost a decade after a planned water connectivity system failed to take off.

Melaka housing, local government and environment committee chairman Datuk Zaidi Attan said the water taxis would be allowed to ply Sungai Melaka very soon.

“The water taxis will be an alternative mode of transportation for locals,” he said after handing over complimentary vehicle parking stickers to media practitioners at the Alor Gajah Municipal Council complex here on Wednesday (Jan 12).

Zaidi said the water taxi service would cover an 8.5km route along the scenic Sungai Melaka, which could address traffic congestion issues and also the lack of parking spaces during peak hours.

“Apart from being a tourist attraction, the water taxis are also meant to reduce traffic bottlenecks in the city,” he said.

An initial plan to introduce water taxi services was made by the former Melaka chief minister Tun Dr Mohd Ali Rustam in 2011.

The plan continued under the administration of former chief minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron.

However, the RM130mil rehabilitation and beautification of Sungai Melaka hit a snag after the earlier contractor appointed by what was then the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry failed to complete the project as scheduled by 2017.

The project involves the widening and extension of the river by another 2.3km to enable the water taxis to stop and pick up passengers from five new jetties.

The project was finally completed last year.

Separately, Zaidi said the state government would act against housing developers for handing over residential units with construction defects and shoddy workmanship.

“I will be visiting a housing project at Durian Tunggal after purchasers complained about structural cracks on several units.

“We will also check on other similar complaints made by the purchasers at other projects too,” he added.