What has been confirmed is that the RM30 million allotted by the previous federal government in December for the purchase of new ferries has been approved by the present administration, he added.
The terminals on both the mainland and island will be modified to take in the new vessels, Chow said at his office in Komtar when elaborating on last week’s meeting with Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.
The meeting came in the wake of the recent breakdown in ferry services. The last two ferries in service had to undergo repairs and, at present, only one of the six ferries is functioning.
The meeting also discussed a scheduled suspension of service for repairs to be carried out but the implementation has now been deferred.
Chow and a Penang government delegation called on Wee and his deputy, Hasbi Habibollah, and transport ministry officials in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday.
On whether the new ferries would be similar to the current vehicle-pedestrian mix or a pedestrian-only catamaran, Chow said this was still being studied.
He felt that, ideally, the current type of ferry should be maintained. At present, vehicles are loaded on the lower deck and passengers occupy the upper deck.
Last week, Wee announced that Penang would receive a new fleet of ferries to replace the existing ones which are close to 50 years old and have now become too expensive to repair.
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