Newly planted shrubs sprouting up at a sidewalk in front of Burmah House along Burmah Road, Penang.

THE Burmah Road stretch in Pulau Tikus, Penang, will see various types of improvements beginning next year as part of a neighbourhood project.

The project to create a more active and connected neighbourhood will see sidewalks along the 1.3km stretch from Brown Road to Codrington Avenue being landscaped with more greenery and equipped with public facilities.

Pulau Tikus assemblyman Yap Soo Huey said the project was aimed at making public spaces more usable as well as making walking more enjoyable.

The project, she added, consisted of five phases, with the first phase covering an area of 6,400sq ft from Pulau Tikus Lane to Cantonment Road.

“We have started implementing the first phase this month and it is expected to be completed at the end of next month,” she told a press conference at Burmah House yesterday.

Yap, who is spearheading the project, said 50% of the cost for Phase I was covered by her Pulau Tikus service centre while the other 50% was covered by Think City, a community-based urban regeneration body that seeks to create more sustainable and liveable cities.

She said a local company offered its services to help with designing and managing the project as part of its corporate social responsibility, adding that two other companies would also be part of the project.

“Among the key elements that will be added onto the sidewalks in Phase I is a pocket courtyard.

“It will have L-shaped seating with a picnic table and porous concrete floor surface, bicycle hoop for cyclists to park their bicycles, and litter bins for general and recyclable litter disposal.

“A swing set with three seats and rubber paving floor finish will be set up.

“Green spaces will also be created with the planting of layered shrubs.

“Part of the objective is to soften the look of our streets and the plants will have a cooling effect in the urban area,” she said.

Yap also said a life-sized 3D steel sculpture of a bullock cart would be erected to honour the history of Burmah Road.

In the past before there was piped water, such carts carrying fresh water from waterfalls and springs to town used the road.

She said a public survey conducted in 2013 to find out the wants and concerns of the public revealed that they wanted more cycling paths and footpaths, followed by improved parkland.

“Fewer cars and more trees were among their wishes,” she added.

The four other phases of the project comprised the stretches between Moulmein Close and Codrington Avenue (Phase II), in front of Bellisa Row (Phase III), in front of the Church of the Immaculate Conception and SMK Convent Pulau Tikus (Phase IV) and near the Brown Road junction (Phase V).

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