Owners of 1,150 shoplots at Komtar, fed up after waiting 23 years for their strata titles, want the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) to quickly resolve the problem.

Komtar Merchants Association chairman Jimmy Chan said the PDC, as a state government agency and project developer, should not delay the problem any longer.

The PDC, he added, must ensure that all requirements to obtain strata titles were met and pressure the Land and Mines Department to quickly issue them.

Chan said Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who is also PDC chairman, had assured owners three years ago that the strata title problem would be given priority attention.

"Four months ago, we had a meeting with PDC officials and were told that they (PDC) will work out a timeframe to obtain the strata titles.

"However, we are still waiting in the dark,'' he said in an interview yesterday.

Without strata titles, he said, owners who wished to sell or mortgage their units had to seek approval from PDC as they were not legally deemed as the "rightful'' owners.

The association had received complaints from members who tried to sell off their units that they had to wait up to two months for PDC's approval.

Chan said the delay in obtaining strata titles was due to problems involving the property's multiple caveats and carpark allocations.

He added that Komtar was built and issued occupancy certificate before the Strata Title Act was enacted and implemented in 1985.

The corporation, he said, should have applied for the strata titles immediately after the Act was implemented.

Chan said he would seek help from Dr Koh's political secretary Teng Chang Yeow to appeal again on their behalf.