Save Taman Rimba Kiara (STRK) said Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad had, at a town hall session with TTDI residents last Friday, put the amount advanced by developer Malton Bhd at between RM100 million and RM150 million.
However, he said yesterday that the amount that would have to be covered by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was closer to RM500 million due to loss of profit.
“It seems as though the minister is not 100% for stopping the project,” STRK coordinator Leon Koay told FMT.
“This thing about half a billion in loss of profit, is the minister trying to scare the public? Why is he trying to make us look unreasonable, as though we are taking away the government’s money?”
Koay claimed that the developer had not even gotten a sales permit to begin with.
“They have permission to build a sales gallery, but they need additional approval before they can start marketing or selling their units.
“If you don’t have a sales permit, what profit are you talking about?”
Even with a development order in force, he added, the developer was not guaranteed any profit.
“They are six months away from doing any of that. They don’t even have the right to sell anything, how can they talk about loss of profit?”
Khalid was reported as saying that the developer had spent approximately RM155 million to date.
“Add around RM300 million for compensation, which is roughly 3% of the RM3 billion estimated development cost. On top of that, we still have to build houses for the longhouse residents using DBKL’s money of between RM15 million and RM25 million, making it a total of RM500 million,” he said.
Koay also told FMT that STRK would look into appealing against the High Court decision denying the group’s judicial review application to overturn the conditional planning permission and development order by DBKL for the high-rise residential project.
“We have lost the case for now, but an appeal is definitely on the table,” he said, adding that the group was considering other avenues as well.
When asked if STRK and TTDI residents were worried that construction would begin, Koay said he hoped the developer would act in good faith and hold off construction work until the matter is resolved.
He added that the developer should also consider putting a halt to construction work as it was part of a joint working committee set up to resolve the matter.
The 12-acre park in question was rezoned from open space to mixed development in 2013, when it was alienated to the Federal Territories Foundation (YWP), a welfare arm of the ministry.
In 2014, under the purview of the former Barisan Nasional government, YWP entered into a joint venture with Memang Perkasa Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Malton Bhd, to build a mega project on the land.
The project entailed the construction of a block of 350 affordable housing units for the Bukit Kiara longhouse community, and eight blocks of 50-story high-end condominiums totalling 1,800 units for a gross development value of at least RM3 billion.
DBKL issued a development order for the project on July 13 last year despite massive objections from the TTDI community.