KUALA KANGSAR: The new airport that will be built in Seri Iskandar will be a game-changer for the state in the future, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said.
Zambry said the people’s dreams to have a new airport finally came through when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiled it during the announcement of the Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto recently.
“We have been dreaming of having a new airport in the state and its finally fulfilled by the prime minister.
“The state government and Perak BN would like to say thank you to our Prime Minister. This will be a game-changer for the state in the future,” he said.
Zambry who is also Perak BN chairman said this in a press conference at Kuala Kangsar Municipal Council here today.
“The new airport will have a longer runway enabling bigger planes to land in the state and we also have big plans around the new airport’s vicinity.
“We just received a decision from the Cabinet that a free trade zone will be built around the airport and this will give a big impact to our economoc growth,” he said adding that in-depth details of the airport would be revealed soon.
Zambry said this plan would also give a big chance to Ipoh, as a capital city of Perak to come up with more development.
“This is the government’s commitment in their manifesto and we want the people know that these are not an empty promises.
“The prime minister has stressed that more than 99 per cent of the 13th General Election (GE14) manifesto have been fulfilled. This shows that BN’s promises can be fulfilled and implemented,” he added.
On Saturday, Najib who is also BN chairman said the airport would be built over the next five years.
The Transport Ministry accepted the state government’s proposal last November to build a new airport on 4,176.7 hectares of government-owned land.
The existing Sultan Azlan Shah Airport in Ipoh was not designed for wide-body aircraft and its runway cannot be extended due to limited land as it is surrounded by residential area.