Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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IN 2005, the federal government spent RM43 million on a city marina, aptly named Tanjung City Marina, featuring 102 berths on a 1.6ha land located within the Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal in George Town, Penang.

The marina, which was built to be of world-class standard, could accommodate about 140 luxury yachts and boats in the berths measuring between 11m and 50m long, with a maximum draft of up to 4m.

It was part of a RM210 million project to give a facelift to the island’s waterfront complete with the redevelopment of the Church Street Pier, with facilities and services such customs, immigration and port clearance, clubhouse, and restaurants.

However, it failed to attract yacht owners.

Fast-forward 12 years and all that is left of the marina constructed when Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) was a Ministry of Finance Inc entity are half-sunken poles that used to hold the pontoons, sticking out like sore thumbs in the sea.

The marina, which used to host the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta and the Darwin-Bali-Langkawi Yacht Rally from 2007 to 2009, was abandoned after falling into disuse, allegedly due to damage sustained in thunderstorms in 2009. This was blamed on design flaws such as the absence of a good floating breakwater.

Penang Port Commission (PPC) made several attempts to revive it amid calls by the Penang government to allow it to take over the marina, but to no avail.

The RM43 million losses are now kept on PPC’s books. PPC is trying to recoup the losses through its revenue from lease rental, management income and licence of its assets such as Penang Port and the Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal.

“The marina is gone and we don’t have plans to revive it. We are still recouping the losses by renting out [parts of the cruise terminal at Church Street Pier] to restaurant operators and getting concession revenue (from PPSB),” a PPC official tells The Edge.

He adds that since PPC is a government statutory body, it had to absorb the losses although the marina was operated by PPSB when it was built.

“We did not write it off. We are trying to recover the money because RM43 million is not a small amount,” the official says.

PPC posted a 14.67% decline in revenue in 2015 to RM21.05 million compared with RM24.09 million in 2014.

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