MARCH 8. 20'l0.

New'Su~

ll

tt together as the political land· things. we can only adopt a wait·
scape shifts.
He says he has been in touch asked whether the plan would be·
with members and has urged come reality follo'o\ing the change
them 10 stay calm.
"We have to think positive. We
ha\·e to take this bold step by dm to appoint a cabinet that
stayln!Z confident. No. we are not has all the needed portfolios.
rumptng the gun. We are doing but it IS also equally Important
what we are supposed to do.
"As for the political side of Kampung Baru folk about the
and-see stance." he says when
In federal government.
He says it is crucial for Muhyid ·
for the government to update
·Redevelopment plan to go
on despite change in govt'
KUALA LUMPURr The Kampung clave was one of non -di rect in-
Baru Development Corporation terference.
(KBDC) has assured landowners "KBDC is factlitatlng redevel·
that the massive redevelopment opment by bridging the gap be-
project in the city's oldest Malay rween developer and landowner
enclave wlll go on despite the to negotiate a deal to ensure there
change in federal government. is mutual understanding to go
KBDC chief executive officer ahead with any project."
DatukZulkumaln Hassan says un- He says the approval rate among
less told otherwise, plans will go landowners has increased by 30
on as per previous instructions. per cent 10 the past two months.
He says even though it will be up • About 32 or 33 per cent of
to the new federal administration landowners agreed to it in De·
to make a final decision, the Fed· cember.
era! Territories Ministry has told ·Just before the 'Sheraton
the corporation to continue a sur· Move', it reached 60 per cent.
vey related to the project. ·we still need at least another
"In a recent meeting with the 35 per cent of landowners."
Federal Territories Ministry sec- He says only five per cent of
retary-general, we have been told Kampung Baru landowners they
to proceed with our exercise to interviewed so far have rejected
engage with landowners as we the offer.
did before." said Zull<urnaln, re- The 120-year-old Kampung
ferring to a survey it has been Baru is administered as a Malay
tasked with carrying out to gauge Agricultural Settlement and cov-
whether landowners agreed to ers UOha of the ctry cemre.
the government's offer in there- Of the total area. 80ha, which is
• development plan. three times the size of the Kuala
He says 60 per cent of the 5,359 Lumpur City Centre, has been
registered landowners in Kam· earmarked for redevelopment. +
pung Baru have agreed to the gov- Of that 80ha, 62ha is privately-
ernment offer in the land sale, and owned.
it needs to reach a referendum of While redevelopment has been
80 per cent of them before a de- proposed for many decades, the
cision can be made on whether to sheer number of landowners.
proceed or scrap the proposal. some of whom are unregistered,
·we are engaging landowners. have died or are embroiled In
This Is because a caveat under small estate disputes. have com-
which the land was given to them plicated matters.
by the sultan of Selangor 120 In 1975, Kuala Lumpur City Hall
years ago dictated that any trans- proposed a development plan
ference or sale of the lots must that was not Implemented.
have approval of all landowners." ln 1985, City Hall came up with
Asked whether the redevelop- another proposal with a rolling
• ment plan would be scaled down, fund of RMS million, but it was
Zulkurnaln said KBDC is pre- unsuccessful.
pared for this possibility. Another plan in 1991 for City
"The best scenario is wholesale Hall to take over a pan of Kam-
development, due to the land pung Baru for development was
caveats and a need for the amal- not realised.
gamation of the smaller plots. ln 2008, former federal terri·
"Redevelopment needs to be tories minister Tan Sri Dr Zul-
comprehensive Instead of frag- hasnan Rafique urged for rede·
mented, with optimal planning velopment plans to be reVived.
and infrastructure. The proposal entailed a RMlO bll·
"That is why during the pre- lion allocation and redevelop-
vious (federal territories) minis· ment of 33 lots belonging to the
ter's (Khalid Abdul Samad) time, government.
we propo~ed for a very good price But it was not until KBDC was
to encourage landowners to par- set up in 2012 that the recent
tlclpate. We want them to resolve push for redevelopment was ex·
land matters and the caveat be· pedited.
cause we are offering them a very Khalld had estimated that land
good price. acquisition would cost between
"But It does not mean that if we RM6 billion and RMlO billion,
offer made to them. fall to do what the prevtous ad- while its gross development val·
"Let them come and talk to us. ministration envisioned, we ue could reach RM30 billion.
Then we can decide and propose should feel our efforts have been The authorities allow a 1:10 plot
ideas that will benefit all stake· wasted. ratio for commercial develop-
holders. "We can continue in a different ments in the enclave.
"What we hope is they'll do capacity. We don't have to devel- However, this r~>qulres lots of
something good that we can ac- op the 80ha all at once. We can do 0.28ha and above, but most of the
cept. That's the only thing we it 10 parcels." lots in Kampung Baru net.'d to be
want. We don't want something lie is referring to the time be· amalgamated a~ most of the lots
that will haunt us or bother us fore Khalid's tenure when the measure only 0.01ha to 0.05ha
later in the future." policy for development in the en· each.