The signboard announcing the development plans at the site of the 100 Quarters in Brickfields. Developer Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) says the former government quarters will be demolished. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, May 26, 2015.
Work to demolish the 99-year-old 100 Quarters in, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, will start tomorrow, developer Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) said today.
MRCB executive vice-president Datuk Dell Akbar Khan said the former government quarters would be demolished due to safety and security reasons.
"The place is now a hazard as the vacant units have been vandalised and a hangout for undesirable elements including drug addicts," he said at a briefing for editors at MRCB's head office in KL Sentral.
Dell said although the 1.4ha land had yet to be handed over to MRCB under a privatisation agreement with the government, the KL Sentral developer had decided to demolish the place as residents had expressed concern over the vandalism taking place at the dilapidated quarters.
One of the units also caught fire at the end of last year.
"It will only get worse if we do not demolish it now," he said adding that the demolition was being carried out with the approval of Bahagian Pengurusan Hartanah under the Prime Minister's Department, which oversees the land, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.
"Residents in the area have also been notified," he added.
The quarters were built in 1915 and consist of three rows of houses along Jalan Chan Ah Tong, Lorong Chan Ah Tong and Jalan Rozario in a prime location near the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
They were once the homes of employees of Malayan Railways or Keretapi Tanah Melayu. The KL Sentral integrated transport hub is located where the old railway depot used to be.
The residents were subsequently moved to the Ang Seng Quarters built by MRCB as part of the privatisation agreement with the federal government which included two other projects, Little India and the Pines Bazaar which has been renamed Kompleks Tun Sambanthan.
The privatisation agreement also involved another adjacent plot of land, measuring 0.6ha, which is currently an open space being used as a temporary car park and by a few hawkers.
MRCB executive vice-president Datuk Dell Akbar Khan says the 100 Quarters has become a hazard to residents in the area. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Chan Cheng Tuan, May 26, 2015.Dell, however, said it was too early to confirm when the MRCB project would begin.
"We are still waiting for the land transfer," he said. The land transfer is expected to be finalised before the end of the year.
It has previously been reported that MRCB's plans for the site will feature three blocks of 1,350 serviced apartments in 40-storey towers.
The gross development value of the development is estimated at RM1 billion.
Dell said there were plans to build a covered walkway connecting the new project to KL Sentral to leverage on the public transport system, malls and other facilities at the transportation hub.
There are also plans to have a small corner to commemorate the 100 Quarters as requested by residents in the area.
Dell stressed that checks had confirmed that 100 Quarters was not a heritage site.
Asked if the current effort to gazette the adjacent Vivekananda Ashram, which is a century old, would affect MRCB's plans, Dell said: "As far as we are concerned, it does not affect us."
He also gave the assurance that the demolition, which is expected to take two months, would only be confined to the hoarded up area and not affect the hawkers nearby.
"We would also try not to add to the traffic congestion in the area," he said adding that the demolition work would be carried out from Monday to Saturday, and if necessary at night to minimise traffic congestion and ensure public safety.
Asked if MRCB would include a public park as part of their plans, he said the matter would be discussed further.
It was previously reported that residents wanted the site of the 100 Quarters to be turned into a park or a football field instead of another multistorey condominium project.
Brickfields Rukun Tetangga central committee member G. Gunasegaran had said the site should be turned into a green lung for the densely built-up neighbourhood which was once the centre of a brick-making industry that fed the British construction drive in colonial Kuala Lumpur.
Gunasegaran, who is also the Save Vivekananda Ashram Brickfields (SVAB) action committee chairman, said that the people of Brickfields needed an open field for their children to play and not a new condominium that would worsen the already bad traffic congestion in the area.
- TMI
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