PUTRAJAYA: In a last resort to save their land, Chinatown and Bukit Bintang lot owners affected by the My Rapid Transit (MRT) have gone to the Prime Minister for help.Even with construction and tunnelling only a few months away, Preserving Jalan Sultan & Bukit Bintang Committee co-chairman Yong Yew Wei believes that businesses there could still be saved.
“We’re not convinced that it is too late. We hope that there is still time for (the MRT’s builders) to go to the drawing board and carry out more public consultation,” he told reporters in front of the PM’s Department in Putrajaya today.
He was also accompanied by more than 20 MRT-affected landowners, and presented a memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The memorandum demanded that an alternative Jalan Sultan realignment be made for Chinatown, and that the Jalan Bukit Bintang station be split into two different stations.
Dozens of lot-owners in Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang were told that their buildings were going to be taken through land acquisition in mid-August for the construction of underground MRT tunnels.
Unhappy with being notified about the matter at the very last minute, the lot-owners took their grouses to politicians, and warned the government not to grab their land by force.
Previously, the government guaranteed that none of the buildings sitting on top of planned MRT tunnels in Jalan Sultan would be destroyed.
The landowners, according to the government, would also have to vacate their premises for at least six months while tunnel construction went on.
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