He disputed an FMT report on Jan 29 which he said did not reflect the situation in the capital city of Selangor.

“How can you say Shah Alam is turning into a ghost town? In fact, MBSA (Shah Alam City Council) is one of the local councils that is making money by collecting millions,” Khalid said, when asked if there is any need to take another look at the city’s town planning.

Khalid, who is also Federal Territories minister, said he had visited the city centre in Section 14 over the weekend. He said sarcastically that he had “met a few hundred people who are all ghosts”.

However, he admitted that Plaza Perangsang has been empty for some time.

Khalid did not answer when asked about plans to rejuvenate the city centre.

The FMT report had quoted real estate veteran Ernest Chong as saying that bad planning had caused the low occupancy of buildings in Section 14, such as Plaza Perangsang, Menara Bank Rakyat, Bank Negara Malaysia Selangor office and Umno Selangor.

He said buildings in the city centre were developed by the state government instead of commercial developers who, he claimed, would have been better at city planning.

A real estate agent in the area, Munirah Mohammad, gave poor maintenance of the buildings as one of the reasons for the low occupancy rates.

She added most tenants had moved out to newer buildings in Shah Alam such as Plaza Azalea, Vista Alam and the Naza Tower.

Checks by FMT on the five buildings at Section 14 found that the buildings were almost deserted.