Restoring marina remains empty promise says Guan Eng

GEORGE TOWN: The Federal Government’s promise to restore the badly-damaged RM45 million marina here remains an “empty promise”, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

He said the Transport Ministry appeared to be no longer interested in rehabilitating the failed federal-funded Tanjung City Marina project.

“We are quite shocked that the land ownership issue is still being used as an excuse.

“The marina was built for the first time in 2005 and the land was owned by the Penang Port Commission (PPC) and it remains so today.

“We have never objected to any reconstruction work on the marina, nor disputed the land ownership,” he said in a statement today.

PPC is a federal statutory body formed under the PPC Act 1955. It is parked under the Transport Ministry and serves as an umbrella body and regulator of ports in Penang.

Lim said Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai’s reply in Parliament recently did not satisfactorily answer why the marina was not being rehabilitated.

Lim said Liow instead insisted that the Federal Government take over the land ownership of the next door Cruise Terminal to make repairs to the marina.

“It is clear that the PPC has ‘pukul mulut sendiri ‘,” Lim said.

The Tanjung City Marina was touted as Malaysia’s first inner-city marina, built at a cost of RM45 million by the Federal Government via the PPC in 2005.

The Tanjung City Marina used to have 102 berths to accommodate 140 yachts and boats.

However, the marina fell into disrepair and was abandoned over the years.

The main problem was that the marina was severely damaged by waves and this was blamed on design flaws.

The marina’s floating breakwater did not do its job properly and this damaged yachts and boats berthed there.

A proposal to build a permanent breakwater did not take off and, in 2012, the marina sank.

Last year, the PPC announced seven parties were interested in rehabilitating the marina at a cost of RM220 million, but there has been no update on the matter.

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