The price for progress

1 These graceful but rundown shophouses, some as old as a century, now house mom-and-pop businesses spanning generations.2 The SJK (T) Ampang will lose part of its field to make way for the highway.3 (From left) Rumah Api collective members Shazni Bhai, Man Beranak and Arip wonder what the future holds for them and other businesses in the Pekan Ampang area.4 The old and long corridors of the pre-war structures.— Photos: LOW LAY PHON/ The Star

MORE than 40 pre-war shophouses in Pekan Ampang in Ampang will make way for the planned Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (SUKE) project.

These shops built during the British era, some over 100 years old, are the state’s last few remaining buildings with colonial architecture at one of the oldest commercial areas in Ampang.