THE RM654mil Sungai Pinang Phase III flood mitigation project will involve a river rehabilitation (River of Life) and the widening and deepening of Sungai Pinang.
The estimated allocation for the River of Life is RM333mil, of which RM95mil will be allocated to build the dry weather flow treatment system and another RM80mil to build drain interceptors.
State Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said other funds would go towards operation expenditure, gross and sullage pollution traps, and others.
He said the widening and deepening of the river would cost about RM321mil, of which stabilisation of the river edges would come up to about RM70mil.
“The land reclamation under the widening and deepening of the river would cost RM50mil,” Chow told a press conference before several houses along Jalan P. Ramlee were demolished yesterday to make way for the start of the Phase III flood mitigation project.
A total of 16 houses and structures will be demolished over the next three weeks along Jalan P. Ramlee, Lorong Kulit and Sungai Pinang.
The project is part of the three-phase Sungai Pinang Flood Mitigation Programme initiated by the Federal Government.
Present during the press conference was state Housing Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo, who said the state government, under Phase II of the programme, would pay out more than RM4mil to the 223 affected squatters in the area.
“We now hand it over to the Federal Government to allocate the funds for the Programme to be carried out as soon as possible,” he said.