GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Government will not introduce a blanket state-wide ban on hillside projects, state Local Government, Traffic Management and Environ-ment Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said.

He said good practices and guidelines was the key to avoiding disasters.

“We are concerned about landslides but we do not intend to take a drastic stand and ban hillside development altogether.

“With good guidelines and engineering practices, development can go on,” Chow said before launching a courtesy campaign at a shopping centre here yesterday.

Citing Hong Kong as an example, Chow said hillside development could be carried out smoothly with the right guidelines.

However, he said, the state government would not hesitate to slap a stop work order on any project which flouted the guidelines.

“We have issued many stop work orders since we took office (in March). The important thing is to ensure that development on hillsides are done safely and under close supervision,” Chow said.

He said the state executive council had, on Friday, decided to form two supporting committees to the recently formulated independent panel of engineering advisers that was given the task of evaluating hillslope projects in the state.

“A supervisory committee will help in overseeing hillside development projects with the state Town and Country Planning Committee acting as the secretariat. The enforcement committee, on the other hand, will work under the Penang Municipal Council to ensure all rules are complied with,” Chow said.

Source: The Star, Sunday December 14, 2008
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/14/nation/2805042&sec=nation