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(The Sun) - A Gerakan youth leader has lodged a report with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) on the “fast-track approval” of a 23-storey hotel building in George Town’s Unesco heritage zone.

Gerakan Tanjong division youth chief H’ng Khoon Leng made the report to the Penang ACA office today, requesting the agency to investigate how the high-rise project by Low Yat Group was approved by the current Penang government.

“The sudden approval in the World Heritage Site listing raises questions on whether there was misuse of power by the relevant parties,” he said in the report.

“It does not make sense that such a sudden approval could have been made in the heritage zone without any knowledge of the World Heritage Committee.”

The 84m high project was approved by the new Pakatan Rakyat state government on June 26 this year, 10 days before the Unesco listing.

Three other high-rise projects approved in the zone by the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government are developed by Eastern & Oriental Hotel Sdn Bhd (84m), Boustead Holdings Bhd (51m) and Asian Global Business Sdn Bhd (51m).

H’ng also criticised Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for his comments, reported in an English daily on Wednesday, in which he is quoted as saying that if the Low Yat project is not allowed, all the other three projects should not be allowed either.

Penang Gerakan chairman and former state executive councillor Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan had told a press conference on Mon (Nov 24) that the Low Yat project had been put on hold by the previous state government due to the heritage zone, incurring criticism from Low Yat Group executive chairman Tan Sri Low Yow Chuan.

Teng said the government had asked Low Yat to scale down the project to eight storeys.

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