63 acres for RM100

Yep, you read correctly. 63 acres of land for a mere RM100. Here. In Penang.

Interested?

All you need to do is to spend another RM80mil to hire a contractor to turn it into live-able land.

What I am referring to is the land reclamation project by the Penang Port Sdn Bhd at the north channel. Apparently, they only paid RM100 for a permit to do reclamation works there a year or two ago. That's it.

No need to pay for the land.

No need to pay royalty.

Nothing.

It was as if that part of the land is given to them free of charge...well, at RM100 to be exact. They can do whatever they want with it. Reclaim it and build their own projects, whatever. It is theirs to use.

I definitely smell a rat here (not to be confused with the smelliness of the area near the Penang bridge toll).

Why is it that PPSB gets the land with no strings attached?

Oh, ya, I forgot to mention that they owed the state government RM6.6mil in royalties for that project. I also neglected to say that the RM6.6mil was overlooked and buried under tonnes of files.

According to my source, PPSB pretended it had forgotten about the RM6.6mil. To make matters worse, despite an outcry by affected fishermen over the project, they had categorically denied that they are reclaiming any land there. They insisted that they were just 'deepening the north channel by dredging it' and dumping the silt 'nearby' as it was costly to bring it to the designated silt-dumping area.

Err...if you are just deepening the channel, why use a high end dredger which process the silt it had dredged and when it dumps the 'silt' it is no longer silt but good quality sand used for reclamation works?

If you are just deepening the channel, why the heck does it take so long (it has been going on for almost two years, I think)?

If you are just deepening the channel, why are you paying the contractor a whopping RM80mil to do that?

No prizes for guessing who sits at the top management of PPSB. Yep, an Umno fella.

Luckily, the new state government is now unearthing the dirt of the past. We shall see how this drama unfold in the near future...