11-year wait for home almost over

16/07/2004 The Star By OPALYN MOK

HEAVING a sigh of relief, taxi driver Mat Pozian Rashid is glad that his 11-year wait for his new home in Bayan Lepas in Penang is finally drawing to a close.

Mat Pozian, 36, purchased a medium-cost unit at Sri Bayu in Bayan Lepas in 1993 but had waited in vain for the project to be completed as it was abandoned in 1994 following financial and management problems faced by the developer.

However, there is now hope for Mat Pozian and the other 729 purchasers as Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB) has taken over the project and has resumed work on it.

State Housing, Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee chairman Syed Ameruddin Syed Ahmad told a press conference recently that the project was already 90% completed and SPNB would complete the remaining 10%.

“SPNB only needs to work on the infrastructure such as the road, piping and drainage,” he said.

Syed Ameruddin added that the project was expected to be completed by September and hopefully the house buyers would be able to move in before Hari Raya in November.

“We also hope to be able to get temporary occupation certificates for the project first so that the buyers can move in as soon as possible,” he said.

Since 1994, three developers had unsuccessfully tried reviving the housing project, which comprises 234 low-cost and 496 medium-cost units.

“We just hope that this time the project will really be completed and that we will really be able to move in by end of this year,” said another buyer, Abdul Razak Adam Shah.

Syed Ameruddin also said that four other abandoned low-cost projects in the state, namely Taman Widuri in Jawi, Taman Cemerlang in Bandar Baru Air Itam, Taman Sejahtera and Taman Mahwira, both in Seberang Perai, were also being revived by SPNB.

On a different matter, Syed Ameruddin said a new committee, also chaired by him, was set up to study the viability of the ‘build and sell’ concept and the proposed abolition of the certificate of fitness (CF) requirement for new buildings in the state.

“The committee members include representatives from the Penang Municipal Council, Seberang Perai Municipal Council and some state executive councillors,” Syed Ameruddin said, adding that the committee will compile a report based on the studies.

Later, at the end of the press conference, Syed Ameruddin, who is also Bayan Lepas assemblyman, handed over his personal contribution of RM2,000 to two fire victims staying in his constituency.