Panel set up over cracks in homes

25/05/2008 Sunday Star By Ng Su-Ann

GEORGE TOWN:T he developer of Penang Times Square has set up a special committee to look into complaints by residents over cracks in their houses caused by the company's mixed development project.

Ivory Properties group managing director Datuk Low Eng Hock said the committee comprised an engineer, a construction manager and a site manager.

“We are taking immediate action to rectify the problem.

“The cracks are not serious ones and will not cause any building to collapse,” he told newsmen when accompanying Penang Municipal Council president Datuk Zainal Rahim Seman to the site yesterday.

Low said the cracks were detected in 18 houses in Kuan-tan Road and Kampung Jawa Baru.

Komtar assemblyman Ng Wei Aik said he alerted the council over the problem on May 21 after receiving a complaint from a resident in Kuantan Road.

The council sent its chief architect and engineer to investigate and they had already prepared a preliminary report, he added.

Zainal said he had directed the developer to seriously take into account geo-technical studies on the site, which was also near Komtar.

“We will monitor the construction work for the next two weeks to ensure the problem does not persist.

“Just like the state government, developers should also practise the CAT (Competence, Accounta-bility and Transparency) philosophy,” he added.

On another matter, he said a developer of a housing project in Batu Ferringhi would be issued a stop-work order tomorrow for causing drainage problems and floods to nearby areas.

“Apart from blocked drains, we found pools of muddy water at the site,” he said, adding the developer would be directed to build a pond within a week to resolve the problem.

He said the order would be lifted when the developer com-plied with the council require-ments.

Present was Datuk Keramat state assemblyman Jagdeep Singh Deo.