A file picture from August 2017 showing the land in question being cleared for development. - Filepic
Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had no role in the sale of a land originally meant for a recreational park to a private developer.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Tan Sri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz confirmed at a meeting with three KL MPs yesterday (Dec 14) that DBKL was not involved in the Federal Territories Ministry’s decision to sell the piece of land to a private developer.
Batu MP Tian Chua said the land in question sits between Taman Beringin and Taman Wahyu with the three detention ponds covering 90% of the land area.
“The mayor confirmed that it is no longer in the hands of DBKL so I will have discussions with residents in the Batu constituency to hold a protest early next year.
A report by StarMetro on Aug 26 this year stated that the Land Working Committee (UJKT) of the Federal Territories used to own the Jinjang, Wahyu and Batu flood detention ponds.
These detention ponds have separate uses compared to retention ponds as detention ponds only temporarily holds water before it enters a stream.
Whereas, retention ponds maintain a pool of water year-round as well as hold stormwater runoff after downpours.
It was reported that a change in ownership of the 32.37ha land was approved on Oct 9, 2015 by the UJKT for a mixed-development project.
However Chua said development of the land is against DBKL’s original plan to make it a recreational park meant to serve the surrounding population.
“By right the land is meant for public use so I urge the Federal government to stop the project and review the sale of the land,” he said, adding there a need for more water catchment areas in KL.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said there was a lack of communication by DBKL involving retaining green areas in the approval of development projects.
She suggested empowering DBKL officers to assist in resolving DBKL’s poor feedback when handling public complaints and issues raised by community leaders.
Setting aside the Federal Territories Ministry’s policy to approve high-rises such as Rumawip, she said it is DBKL’s duty to allocate areas for recreational open spaces, public transportation and multi-storey parking lots.
“It’s high time DBKL put free feeder buses to take residents to LRT stations in areas where low-cost high-rise developments have been approved.
“The mayor said they are in talks with the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) on the feeder buses but there is no concrete decision yet,” she added.
“I also brought up Taman Desa Residents’ Association’s (TDRA) request for a meeting with the mayor and he replied that he will schedule a meeting with them either this month or January,” added Kok.
Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw said the discussions covered flash floods, recommending the need for DBKL to look into the possible outcomes of high-rise development projects before approving them.
“In terms of flash floods, the first thing DBKL must do before approving a project is to see if it will cause floods because it is expensive to redo the drainage systems,” he added.
