Penang Port Commission chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng speaks during a press conference at the Royale Chulan Hotel Penang December 15, 2020. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
GEORGE TOWN, March 31 — The Penang Port Commission (PPC) today welcomed the state government’s plan to build a third link to connect the island to its mainland half in Butterworth.
“We give our full support towards the implementation of the project but emphasis must also be given to the future development of the Penang Port,” PPC chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng said in a statement.
He said the alignment of the project is located on the north of the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT).
NBCT is the only port handling containers in Penang.
Tan said the third link is a project under the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) which is a plan for more effective traffic dispersal on the island.
He said PPSB has been providing feedback on the proposed undersea tunnel since 2019 while PPC was only involved in an initial meeting held on January 31, 2020 and later, a technical meeting on February 13, 2020.
“PPC provided our feedback regarding the third link project to the state economic planning division through an email on May 20 in 2020,” he said.
He stressed that the northern coast of the port must be at least 2.2km wide to ensure the safety of ships traversing the channel.
“With a trend of larger ships of between 13,000 TEUs and 15,000 TEUs to berth at the port, these ships are expected to have a maximum draft of 16 metres,” he said.
He said the minimum depth required for safe passage of these larger shops are 23 metres from the seabed.
“Other than the width and depth required, PPC also asked that the position of the artificial island for the third link project on the side of Bagan Ajam can be shifted to be nearer to the coast to avoid interrupting the daily operations of the NBCT and obstruct the expansion of NBCT in future.
He added that the PPC board has approved a development plan for the northern area of NBCT back in 2020.
The development plan included reclamation of 217 hectares of land for the port and port related activities included expanding an additional dock by 1.5-metre.
Tan said PPC and PPSB have also conducted a study into a mega expansion plan towards the southern area of NBCT.
“It was found that an expansion towards the south of NBCT will affect the Penang Water Supply Corporation twin pipeline,” he said.
He said there is also the hazardous cargo operations at the Shell and Petron terminal located on the southern side of NBCT.
“The depth of the southern area near Butterworth dock, Shell and Petron terminal was insufficient to accommodate container ships of 8,000 TEUs,” he said.
Other than that, he said the Butterworth port has high siltation issues compared to NBCT.
Tan said he had already given his views on the third link project to the state government on March 28.
“I have already stated PPC’s stance on the project which has not changed even though there was a change in government,” he said.
He reiterated that PPC welcomed the third link project as long as Penang Port’s development is also prioritised.