Work to restart on abandoned project

The Star 18/09/2003  By DHARMENDER SINGH

OVER 1,000 buyers of the apartments in Phase 5 of Serdang Perdana will finally see work restarted on the project that has been abandoned for two years.

Serdang MP Datuk Yap Pian Hon, who visited the project site on Tuesday, said the project was abandoned after the original developer, Green Resources Sdn Bhd, ran into financial problems.

He said work on the project to build apartment blocks, shops and office units started at the end of 1998 but was abandoned in November 2001.

He said Pengurusan Danaharta Bhd took over the project last year and hired special administrators to study it.

Last month, the administrators allowed a joint venture company to take over the construction of the apartment units, which were about 60% complete, and the shop and office units, which were 80% complete.

Yap said the company was in the process of calling for a meeting between the company, the Serdang MCA division and the 1,369 apartment buyers to explain how the project would be completed and how long it would take before they could move in.

“The company wants to start work by the end of this month or early next month but if the buyers start to make too many demands, this will prolong the negotiation period and cause further delays,” he said.

Yap said some of the buyers he contacted had asked for his help in reducing the burden they faced in paying the interest on the amount of money released to the original developer.

“During a discussion with Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh recently, I mentioned the problem to him and he advised me to write an appeal letter to Bank Negara on behalf of the buyers,” he said.

He said he would prepare the letter asking Bank Negara to seek lower interest rates or discounts from the banks on the loans taken by the buyers.