GEORGE TOWN: A group of 15 civil society organisations have urged the Penang government not to rush into signing its highly-ambitious Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

They said more transparency, accountability and genuine engagement with the public were needed before signing the important agreement.

“We support the idea of a transport masterplan and the need to prioritise public transport over the present private car-centric transport system, and we wish to commend the state for this proactive move.

“However, there are very fundamental and critical issues that need to be addressed before the current proposals are accepted,” it said in a joint statement.

The civil society organisations also listed down nine issues which it said should be closely dealt with prior to signing the agreement.

Top on the list is whether the population projections warrant such a massive scheme at such a tremendous cost.

“Also, for a government committed to CAT (competence, accountability and transparency), there is a lack of clarity with regards to the financing of the entire scheme.

“What are the people being committed to? How will payment via reclamation works? Will the project delivery partner SRS Consortium implement roads first and public transport last?

“What happens if we run out of funds after the initial stages? Will the public be subjected to unaffordable fares, thereby making them return to their cars? No answers are provided in the PTMP,” it further added.

It was reported that massive sea reclamations to form three man-made islands were slated to start as early as 2018 under the PTMP.

The massive reclamations were to fund infrastructure under the PTMP.

PTMP is an ambitious state-initiated project which features an undersea tunnel linking the island to the mainland, highways, LRT, monorail as well as extensive bus connectivity on both the island and the mainland.-nst