Prasarana and PR1MA plan 4,000 apartment units near LRT stations

PETALING JAYA: State-owned public transport operator and owner Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd has identified six light rail transit (LRT) locations on 17.6 acres it owns to build affordable homes alongside the train stations.

The concept under the strategic partnership with the 1Malaysia People's Housing (PR1MA) unit under the Prime Minister's Office, is for both partie s to build 4,000 apartment units either above or next to the LRT stations.

“We are still fine-tuning the details,” group managing director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar said at a press conference.

“Hopefully we will be able to share the gross development value and other details in a couple of months.”

Shahril said both parties were analysing the locations and their geographical aspects to determine the design of the apartments and stations.

PR1MA chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Mutalib Alias said this could be the first of its kind development in Malaysia although it has been done in other bigger cities like Hong Kong.

They said that the caretaker Prime Minister had approached them separately to talk about the need for public transportation to service affordable housing areas.

“When Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told me that, I knew (Prasarana and we) would have to work together,” Mutalib said.

The six locations are Pandan Jaya, Pandan Indah, Cempaka, Jelatek, Glenmarie and Putra Heights.

For the first three loc ations, 2,000 units with basic retail components are being planned to be built first.

The construction will begin in the third quarter of this year, and is expected to complete in three years.

There will be mixed developments in the next three lo cations.

The six locations are part of the 13 parcels of land Prasarana had earmarked for property development.

However, he clarified that the remaining parcels are not necessarily for PR1MA housing.

Although most of the details have yet to be finalised at this juncture, Mutalib revealed that the unit floorplans would be between 750 sq ft for a 1+1 studio apartment and 1,200 sq ft for the 3+1 bedroom units, all priced between RM100,000 and R M400,000.

“The issue we are addressing is the cost of living for the urbanites and by living near to public transportation, the young individuals or new families wouldn't need to own two cars,” he said, adding that the Pandan area has a high concentration of middle income earners.

On noise pollution affecting the homes, Shahril said the development could be designed with sound barriers and slow zones for the trains.

Mutalib also urged interested individuals to register online at www.pr1ma.my and not through bogus agents who claimed they could help them register after collecting a deposit of a few thousand ringgit.

At the moment, there are 210,000 registered individuals on the PR1MA database. Mutalib said the homes would be sold based on open balloting of the names registered.

“Everyone will stand a fair chance as long as you are in our database. There is no quota, as long as you are qualified, you may get it.”