RM1.5 million to complete Kuala Kangsar abandoned housing project

KUALA KANGSAR - Local Government Development Ministry (KPKT) allocated RM1.5 million to complete the project to upgrade the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and related works at the Taman Mayang Phase 2 project site here which was abandoned since 2018.

Its Deputy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the progress of the project, which consists of 65 units of two-storey terrace houses and 22 units of two-storey semi-detached houses, reached 95 per cent completion but failed to obtain the Certificate of Fitness for Occupation (CFO) and the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC).

"It was due to the existing STP has not received support and certification from Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) when the developer failed to upgrade the plant due to financial and technical problems.

"Hence, through the channelling of allocation for the rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects under the 2023 Budget initiative, it is expected that the works to upgrade the plant can be carried out until the entire project receives a CCC or CFO,” he said at a press conference during a working visit to the project site today.

He said that the allocation was channelled to the Perak government and the Kuala Kangsar Municipal Council who were appointed as implementing agencies to monitor and complete the STP upgrading work and other related works at the project site.

He said that the project commenced in 1999 and should have been completed in 2004.

"The developer has had his temporary licence terminated at the municipal council level since and we are handing it over to the local government,” he said.

Based on the task force's monitoring statistics, there are five abandoned housing projects out of a total of 114 projects recorded for Perak as of June 30 this year involving 365 housing units and 298 affected buyers.

Therefore, he said the KPKT's sick and abandoned private housing project task force team will continue to intensify efforts to monitor and restore abandoned, sick and late projects nationwide.

In the meantime, Akmal Nasrullah said the government is reviewing the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (Act 118) to improve the management efficiency of the industry as a whole, including regarding the issue of abandoned and problematic housing projects.

On July 14, National Association for Abandoned Property Owners (Victims) chairman Dr Mohamed Rafick Khan Abdul Rahman was reported to have said that the government need to review the Housing Act which is still weak and out-of-date leading to the occurrence of abandoned and problematic housing project dumping. - BERNAMA