Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara to be gazetted as green lung

KUALA LUMPUR: Parts of Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara are in the process of being gazetted as a green lung and will be developed into a public recreational park, says Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad.

Khalid said the Federal Territories Land Executive Committee has approved 111ha of the land to be gazetted as a recreational park.

“We wanted to gazette the whole 163.6ha of Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara as green lung, but the remaining acreage was leased to a private company.

“We tried to offer an alternative area to the company but if they disagree, we will have to wait for the lease to expire in about seven years,” he said on Monday (Dec 2).

Taman Persekutuan Bukit Kiara involved seven plots of government land under the Federal Territories Lands and Mines Department, which was jointly managed with Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor.

“I would not allow any development on the leased part of the land.

“Once we gazette it, it would be difficult for any developers to develop the site. We want to preserve the park as it is,” he added.

Separately, a Park National Council has been set up to drive Malaysia to become a country with the most beautiful parks.

It will be chaired by Khalid and the council will include the ministry's secretary-general, state exco members, and landscape experts.

The council will be tasked to preserve public parks in the country.

“Special allocations will be given to the states to beautify these parks.

“Since 2010, we have gazetted 90 parks as public parks. We are targeting to gazette 10 more this year, one in each state,” Khalid said.