Chow hints Jelutong landfill project may be scaled down

2026-03-11 - 14:34

Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said the Penang Development Corporation will review the environment department’s letter on the landfill project. (File pic) GEORGE TOWN: Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow has hinted that the Jelutong landfill project could move forward in a scaled-down form. Chow said he had previously raised the possibility that, even if approved, the reclamation component could be reduced. He said the project could continue “with another concept and all those things”, noting that the residents’ main concern had been the reclamation plan. “The Penang Development Corporation (PDC) has to look at the environment department’s letter in full. They will study it and make the appropriate recommendation to the state,” he told reporters after a breaking of fast event held by the Muslim Jewellers and Money Changers’ Association here this evening. Nonetheless, Chow said the landfill still needs to be dealt with. “The sanitary landfill, in operation since the 1970s, has reached its limits,” he said. He was responding to a question about the Karpal Singh Drive residents’ group, which held a press conference today where they urged him to honour his assurance last year that the proposed project would not proceed if it did not obtain the required environmental approval. Bukit Jelutong MP RSN Rayer, who was present at the press conference, said the fact that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been rejected four times was cause for concern and showed that the project should not be revived. The original plan involved digging up and rehabilitating the landfill and reclaiming adjacent coastal land north of the Penang Bridge to temporarily dump the unearthed rubbish from the landfill. After that, a mixed development project will be carried out on the reclaimed land. The 65ha site comprises 36ha of landfill and 29ha of new land next to the Karpal Singh Drive waterfront. PDC had signed a deal with PLB Engineering Bhd in 2020 to carry out the project, which was expected to take four to five years, but no work has begun. The environment department’s EIA portal, which states whether an EIA report has been approved, rejected or is still being processed, classified the project as “not approved”.