Palace to cost RM800 MILLION (US$258million)

(AFP) - A MASSIVE new palace being built for Malaysia's king is expected to be completed next June, at a total cost of US$258 million (RM800 million), parliament has been told.

The 'Istana Negara', or national palace, which is taking shape on a hilltop in a Kuala Lumpur suburb is an enormous complex of dome-topped buildings linked to the city's highways with special access roads.

The palace sprawls over a 100,000 square metre site which was annexed in the 1990s in what has since become a prime residential area.

Works Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor said the palace is expected to be completed on June 30 next year, at a total cost of 797 million ringgit (S$336 million).

The figure has risen from an earlier allocation of 650 million ringgit, he said in a written reply issued on Monday after a query from the opposition.

'The additional allocation is needed to fulfil costs which were not included in the earlier contract, among them being the security system, utility payments and also interior decoration,' he said. The historic project also entails the construction of a highway flyover and an access road, at a cost of an extra 138.5 million ringgit.

No open tender for contract

* Malaysia's opposition has criticised the government's decision to award the development contract without a tender, and said the company which will handle the construction is controlled by a senior figure in the ruling party.

* The Star daily said the government had explained that there was no open tender because the special project was subject to security considerations.

* Malaysia has a unique rotating monarchy shared among nine sultans, who are the royal rulers and guardians of Islam in their respective states. They each take turns to rule for five years as the nation's king.

The current monarch, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin from the northern state of Terengganu, was sworn in in 2006 at the age of 45, becoming Malaysia's second-youngest king ever.

His current palace is a colonial mansion built in the 1920s which was originally the home of a self-made ethnic-Chinese tycoon, and was later bought by the government. -- AFP