High-rise projects threaten public park

Friends of Bukit Kiara alleges that the cabinet has broken a promise it made in 2006.

PETALING JAYA: An environmental interest group has demanded that the government explain why it has allowed development projects to eat into the forested part of Bukit Kiara that is supposed to be reserved for use as a public park.

Speaking to FMT, Friends of Bukit Kiara (FOBK) president Salleh Mohd Nor pointed out that the federal cabinet made a promise in June 2006 to reserve part of the land on the hill for a park.

However, he said, parcels of the land had instead been sold to developers planning to build commercial or residential high-rise buildings.

Salleh, a former director-general of the Forest Research Institute, said the Bukit Kiara forest land acquired by the government from a private owner was originally 650ha.

Under the land code, private land acquired by the government may be used only for public benefit.

Salleh alleged that the government had decided to cede a large part of the area to a number of private recreational clubs, including the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club, leaving only a small area planted with old rubber trees for the park.

In 2007, in response to urgent appeals from the public, the cabinet decided to gazette 186ha of the remaining vacant land for the establishment of Taman Awam Berskala Besar.

Jabatan Landskap Negara was assigned to manage and supervise the park in August 2010, with the approval of City Hall.

“However, far from being a green and peaceful haven, Bukit Kiara today is a scene of destruction, barricaded by developers to demarcate public and private space,” Salleh said.

“There have been three walks to Save Bukit Kiara. Also, a petition with more than 10,000 signatures has been submitted to the prime minister’s office. Activists have even spoken to Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng to raise the issue in Parliament, but all the efforts have come to naught.”

Recently, Taman Tun Dr Ismail residents again voiced objections to a proposed high-rise project near Taman Bukit Kiara, for which City Hall has issued a development order. But their protests have apparently fallen on deaf ears.

The residents are objecting to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan’s proposal to build eight 42-storey and 54-storey blocks of service apartments on Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad, next to Taman Awam Berskala Besar.

Salleh claimed the affected residents had been fighting hard against the development project, but were impeded by bureaucracy and the “lackadaisical attitude” of government agencies, including City Hall.

“Residents have tried for many years to speak to the federal government, City Hall and the National Landscaping Department about buffer zones, but to no avail. The landscaping authority says it is out of its jurisdiction.”

Salleh said the park had not been the same since work on the development began.

“The park now feels smaller. What was once a haven for nature lovers is fast becoming another casualty of corporate greed. The park is steadily being plundered by bulldozers and developers in a hurry to build another luxury enclave.”

As a result, he said, residents would have to contend with traffic jams from TTDI to Mont Kiara on top of dust from the construction of a Mass Rail Transit line.

He blamed the eradication of green lungs such as the one in Bukit Kiara on the ungazetted status of the city development plan.

“FOBK is concerned that as a result of the delay in gazetting the KL Draft Development Plan, unscrupulous developers are taking the opportunity to eat into green lungs in the city with the support of the authorities,” he said.

“We cannot understand why the plan has not been gazetted unless it is a deliberate delay tactic by the authorities to allow further encroachment on the park.” -FMT