PUTRAJAYA, 12 Dec 2008: The Federal Territories Ministry today decided to disallow any development on hill slopes with a gradient of more than 35 degrees in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique said projects on hill slopes with a gradient of 26 to 35 degrees would be frozen until such time when a proper planning, design and control system had been devised and enforced by the government.
“However, the developers or contractors of the affected projects will be asked to carry out work to reinforce the soil structure including constructing a proper drainage system to ensure that the soil structure is safe from landslides,” he said at a press conference at his office, here today.
Zulhasnan said that for projects on hill slopes that had already been approved, the developers or contractors would not be allowed to carry out earth works or building construction until the government had reached a decision.
“The Ministry of Housing and Local Government and the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment are carrying out studies on this matter and they will issue guidelines on such developments soon, and whether these projects would continue will depend on these guidelines,” he said.
Zulhasnan said that currently three projects in Kuala Lumpur had been identified as risky, namely the development of 21 units of bungalows in Medan Damansara, the development of a block of service apartments in Bukit Ceylon, and the development of bungalows on Bukit Gasing.
For the projects in Medan Damansara and Bukit Ceylon, he said the developers had been ordered to stop development work and also asked to reinforce the slopes as had been approved.
For the project in Bukit Gasing, Kuala Lumpur City Hall had postponed consideration for the application to build individual bungalows as the case had been taken to court because the residents of Taman Bukit Gasing were not happy with the approval given for the project. — Bernama
