Story by Amanda Khong
EARLIER in July, Penang state government approved the proposals and guidelines for building foreign workers’ dormitories.
Currently Penang does not have any specific area for dormitories for foreign workers, leading to them staying among the public in housing areas.
Exco member for Town and Country Planning and Housing Jagdeep Singh Deo held a short press conference regarding this issue on Nov 1.
“We came up with this idea last year and recently the guidelines were approved by the state government. I am hoping that this proper and regulated housing scheme for foreign workers will give them a better place to stay,” he said.
Penang is home to a number of multinational corporations (MNCs), so their workers are subject to international guidelines where certain standards must be met in terms of size and facilities.
These international guidelines are incorporated into the approved guidelines for the dormitory development project.
This dormitory development project has to be in either commercial or industrial zones only.
Facilities such as kitchen, provisional store, medical, quarantine, and sports facilities are also stipulated in the guidelines.
Potential areas for the dormitory development would be in Batu Maung and Bukit Minyak as these are the popular industrial zones.
Jagdeep hopes that development and construction of these dormitories will be able to begin as soon as 2016.
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