Melewar submits RM2.2b monorail plan

On Track: An artist's impression of Melewar's RM2.2 billion monorail system for George Town

MELEWAR Industrial Group (MIG) Bhd has presented to the Penang state government a proposal for a RM2.2 billion monorail system for George Town.

The proposed ultra-light loop monorail system covering a 52km track is set to operate on a single line and run on three different loops from locations like Gelugor, Farlim in Air Itam and Gurney Drive into the city.

“The focus of the main link will be the centre of George Town and we strongly believe that the federal government and state government will work together in bringing a monorail system to Penang,” Melewar Industrial Group’s managing director and chief executive officer Tunku Datuk Yaacob Tunku Abdullah told reporters after presenting the proposal to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and members of the state executive council yesterday at Lim’s office.

He said the proposed system, which is aimed at moving people from point-to-point into the city, will boast a 12-car train of monorail and can move 17,600 passengers per hour.

Tunku Yaacob said the company can take 28 months to complete the system which would feature steel structures.

“Land acquisition can also be kept to a minimum because the monorail will be running on road dividers,” he added.

When asked to comment on concerns from Penangites that a monorail would mar the charm of George Town’s historic inner city which is vying for a listing on the World Heritage List, Tunku Yaacob said:

“We will not bring the monorail to heritage buildings ... we will not run it in front of the buildings but behind them.”

However, an artist’s impression of the proposed monorail system for Penang provided by Melewar showed the system running alongside historic structures in the city.

On postings in blogs that Penang should bring back its tram system instead of introducing a monorail, he described the tram concept as an interesting one but pointed out that the trams had not been successful.

Last November, Melewar Industrial Group Bhd unit Melewar Metro Sdn Bhd (MMSB), which is vying for the estimated RM1.2 billion monorail project in Penang, announced that it had formed a consortium with Putera Capital Bhd to cooperate to jointly secure the project.

Melewar Group had said in a statement that the consortium was formalised with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between MMSB’s wholly-owned subsidiary Melewar Metro (Penang) Sdn Bhd (MMP) and Putera Capital. MMSB made the proposal for the monorail project to the government via its subsidiary.

Melewar is one of several parties which participated in a tender exercise for the development of a monorail system for Penang on November 14 last year which was called by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB).

In January this year, SPNB awarded a letter of intent for the project to Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB), which has formed a consortium with Penang Port Sdn Bhd and Scomi Engineering Bhd.

By New Straits Times (by Marina Emmanuel)