Sanita (holding mike) with other Kampung Sungai Baru homeowners and media personnel who attended the briefing at a mall in Kuala Lumpur.
A GROUP of Kampung Sungai Baru homeowners are urging the government to push ahead with the redevelopment despite objections from certain quarters.
The residents had gathered for a press briefing today to voice their grievances with the project delay.
Kampung Sungai Baru Property Owners and Welfare Association chairman Sanita Yunus said the majority wanted redevelopment to proceed as their properties was on a 99-year-lease.
“Not all of us can afford the pricey lease renewal, which is why we are so eager for the project to take off.
“This project has stalled for nearly nine years and it is unfair to owners who already agreed to the redevelopment,” she said at a mall in Kuala Lumpur.
Sanita also highlighted that there was a misperception among the public that the land was given to them by the Selangor Ruler.
“Our land plots have grants and were bought by our parents and grandparents.
"They are not part of the Malay Agricultural Settlement (MAS) land,” she said.
Established in 1989, MAS land was gifted by the Selangor Ruler for Malays to set up a settlement in Kuala Lumpur.
In statements earlier this week, Selangor Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah had called on authorities to ensure development plans take into account the welfare of Malays.
Sanita explained that Kampung Sungai Baru is a residential area sandwiched between Kampung Baru and the Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (Akleh).
She said their homes were not located on Malay reserve land and developed by PKNS in the early 1970s.
She thanked Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Datuk Seri Dr Zaliha Mustafa for her cooperation while calling on Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani to expedite the redevelopment, first announced in 2016.
The project covers 3.2ha and replaces 328 homes, comprising 64 terrace lots and 264 flats across eight PKNS blocks.
Flat owners were each offered one replacement unit valued between RM884,000 and RM1mil, while terrace owners were offered between three and nine units worth RM2.7mil to RM8.1mil.
Though more than two-thirds of residents agreed to the plan, a small group of holdouts argued that the government's compensation undervalued their land.
In June 2021, Section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 was invoked to formally acquire the land.
The redevelopment project is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.
