KUCHING: Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Chong Chieng Jien has cautioned the state government against embarking on the hydrogen fuelled bus technology. “It has been announced that three hydrogen buses are coming in and I would like to caution the state government before embarking on this technology,” he said.
According to the Member of Parliament for Stampin and State Assemblyman for Kota Sentosa, the state government’s move was flamboyant but impractical. “The technology for it isn’t mature yet. There will be a lot of innovations or adjustments that will be made to it in the future. “If we buy them now and when the technology changes, it will be a waste of the people’s money,” he said. Chong added that the price of one hydrogen bus was almost double the price of a conventional bus.
“The price of a conventional bus is around RM400,000 to RM500,000 and the cost of a hydrogen fuelled bus is close to RM1 million each.
“The state government would then have to spend money for the facilities to convert water to hydrogen, thus spending more money “That is why I am cautioning the state government not to embark on such a flamboyant project as at the end of the day, it may come up to nothing.
“I urge the state government to rethink this project and go for more conventional buses by increasing the number of these buses and improving the public transport facilities,” he said.
Chong made the comments during a press conference after conducting an inspection at Everrise, BDC here in conjunction with the implementation of the Sales and Service Tax (SST) on September 1.
