PUTRAJAYA: Transport Minister Anthony Loke has given his assurance that the Penang Light Rail Transit (LRT) project will not jeopardise Georgetown's status as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's world heritage site.
He said preliminary consideration has been taken into account, including obtaining approvals for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment.
"All of that has been taken into consideration during the preliminary study and as I said, the EIA has already been done.
"Of course, sensitive areas in the heritage area must be given special attention," he said here today.
On whether the government will implement a congestion tax or limit the entry of vehicles into Penang with the LRT project involved, Loke said that the matter was not discussed.
"Let's finish building this first. There are six years left. It is not like it (the project) will be completed by tomorrow.
"So, when it is built, of course, changes, new policies and approaches will be taken into account. But so far, there is no plan yet. People might panic, there might be congestion charges, but for now, we focus on developing infrastructure first," he said.