GEORGE TOWN, March 22 — Residents of high rise buildings near the construction of a highway project in Penang on a precarious hill slope are living in fear of landslides due to large swatches of the hills being cleared for the project.

A residents’ association committee member from the Kingfisher Series Condominium, Richard Lim, said there are no guarantees by any of the authorities or project developer that the indiscriminate hill clearing will not lead to unwanted disasters.

"There is no guarantee of our safety, they are chopping off trees, clearing the hill and leaving it bare and if there are heavy rains, landslides might happen,” he said during a press conference held by Penang Forum to highlight the highway project here today.

The highway project is a RM851 million bypass which stretches 6km to connect Lebuhraya Thean Teik in Air Itam to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.

Lim also said residents in the condominium were never informed about the project before it commenced.

He said the project started immediately after the 15th general election last November.

"There was a meeting held about the project on January 14 this year after they started it and it was only the developer there to introduce the project but without any details,” he said.

He said Seri Delima assemblyman Syerleena Abdul Rashid whose constituency covers the area, was not present and none of the state authorities were also there to reassure the residents of their safety.

"When we asked questions about the project during that meeting, they said they will organise another meeting with details about it but since then, there is silence,” he said.

Penang Forum member Khoo Salma said the alignment of the bypass will affect a total 17 high rise apartments involving tens of thousands of residents in areas surrounding Lebuhraya Thean Teik and Island Glades.

Most of the residents from these residential buildings were unaware that the highway will pass right by their back door and no public consultations were held on the project, she said.

"The highway will only be about 50 metre to 100 metre away from these 17 high rise apartment blocks,” Khoo said.

She also questioned the state government on the details of the project as the official Facebook page of the project showed that there will be three tunnels in the project.

"The EIA approved for this project did not list any tunnels so will there be tunnels or not?” she asked, referring to the environmental impact assessment report.

Khoo also brought up the 2017 landslide in Tanjung Bungah that killed 11 people where an apartment project was being built on a Class One hill slope.

"That was only a Class One hill slope, but this highway is being built on Class Two and Three hill slopes,” she said.

The highway is Package Two of the RM6.3 billion three major roads and undersea tunnel (PMRT) project.

It was previously reported that the alignment for Package Two consists of a 4.2km elevated section and a 1.8km of at-grade section with no mentions of tunnels.

There will be three interchanges along the road; Interchange One at Lebuhraya Thean Teik, Interchange Two at Jalan Bukit Gambir - Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and Interchange Three at Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway with a left in- left out junction and an elevated u-turn.

Khoo said if there are changes to the highway’s original plans, such as to build tunnels instead of elevated highways, they should apply for a new EIA.

Another affected resident, Dr T. Jeyabalan, said Bukit Hijau is a water catchment area with a waterfall and large boulders on it.

The former assemblyman said the clearing of the hills left the large boulders bare and hanging on the hill slopes.

"People living there are facing the dangers of these boulders coming down, we don’t need this project which is mainly to move cars and not people, the government should be concentrating on public transport,” he said.

President of Consumers’ Association of Penang, Mohideen Abdul Kader, brought up the most recent landslide tragedy in Batang Kali where 31 people were killed and 61 others injured.

"The highway was built without proper drainage that led to the massive landslide and now, they are building a highway on a hill slope and we can only hope it won’t lead to a landslide,” he said.

He said now the residents there have to be vigilant about the project as it involves their safety.

The Penang Forum called on the state government and the developer of the project to hold a town hall session with affected residents to assure them of their safety.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenakshi Raman said the authorities need to explain the details of the project to the affected residents.

"They have to guarantee that there will not be any slope failures and landslides and they have to assure the residents of their safety now that it is too late to stop the project,” she said.

She said the residents are all facing sleepless nights worrying about landslides and disasters due to the project, especially during rainy weather.