Big problems in Little India

Rising costs and falling sales are chasing Brickfields traders out of Little India.

KUALA LUMPUR: With rising costs and falling sales, businesses in Brickfields are feeling the pinch.

Many traders and shopkeepers in the newly-converted area of Little India are seeing unexpected losses.

Some have even packed up and left for good.

In June 2010, Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) started its RM35 million Little India programme that promised to see the beautification of the Brickfields district.

But many of the heavy-handed development projects here have not gone down well with the traders.
Accompanying the new-look Brickfields are higher rentals, changed traffic system and lack of parking space.

All these factors have allegedly contributed to losses in business for traders in the area.

In mid-2010, florist A Karuppiah, 62, was paying RM1,600 rent a month for his shop.

Today, he is paying RM2,800 a month – a 75% increase.

“Before Brickfields was turned into Little India, we were making a comfortable profit. Today, we are unable to make a profit,” he told FMT.

Born and bred in Brickfields, he said the lack of parking spaces along Jalan Tun Sambanthan was also causing many would-be customers to shun businesses in the area.

P Loganathan, 45, a textile shopowner, said that the lack of parking spaces had discouraged both citizens and tourists from frequenting Brickfields.

“In the past, people used to come here for shopping. But there are no parking spaces, so customers don’t want to come,” he said.

No parking and rising crime

The drop in customers have heavily affected his business. Loganathan told FMT that before Little India came into the scene, he could make sales of more than RM4,000 in a single day.

Today, he struggles to earn more than RM1,000 in the same period, although he now has to pay an additional RM5,000 in rent a month.

He added that the scant parking spaces in nearby streets were also being snapped up by public transport users, instead of potential customers.

Loganathan also blamed KL City Hall (DBKL) officials for scaring motorists away. He said that many of them could be seen attacking vehicles with summonses during peak hours of the day.

Once a two-way traffic system, Jalan Tun Sambanthan and parallel Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad have been turned into busy one-way boulevards.

Walkways in front of the shops were also widened for the benefit of pedestrians. However, very few people could be seen using them, even on a Friday afternoon.

“These walkways are so big you can play football here!” said an angry Loganathan, adding that DBKL officials would religiously fine business owners who would ply their trade on the walkways.

To add insult to injury, Loganathan also told FMT that rising crime had scared people away from the area.

They attributed this to the relocation of the Brickfields police station to faraway Sri Petaling late last year.

With not even a manned police beat base in the area, residents said that snatch thieves and other crimes are now becoming a daily occurrence.

Lack of cooperation

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said that Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Deputy Minister M Saravanan told her that the police station would be up and running by April this year.

Agreeing with traders’ sentiments, Nurul said she was both concerned and very frustrated with Little India’s problems.

However, she said it was difficult to know what the government had in store for Brickfields, as there was no detailed blueprint for Little India.

“Until today, I have not received a detailed blueprint of Little India.

“The blueprint needs to be there so we can check on it and tell the authorities what to do,” she told reporters after meeting with Brickfields traders today. She was also accompanied by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.

Nurul also said that a traffic study of the area had not been made available to the public, and demanded that the local authorities be transparent in their dealings with the Little India development.

She also hinted on the lack of cooperation by the local authorities, because of her status as an opposition MP.

“There is a lot of fear here that if people are involved with the opposition, they won’t get help from the government.

“We don’t want to let politics get in the way. Local businesses are affected,” Nurul said, and asked Saravanan to take note of the problems here.

But many of the traders here have had enough with the local authorities.

“In Brickfields, we have the support of two MPs. But if two MPs cannot help, what can we do?” Karuppiah said.

“We are gentlemen, not street protesters. But if the government is not going to listen to us, we will take to the streets and protest!” he promised angrily. -FMT