KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 ― The full demolition of the iconic Ampang Park mall in the city centre is necessary to ensure that the planned underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station there is built safely, the MRT Corp said today.

MRT Corp's Haris Fadzilah Hassan explained that the government has to acquire the decades-old mall as the planned station with five storeys fully underground will be built directly under two-thirds of the shopping centre.

“One of the issue is safety, because Ampang Park is a very old building, about 42-years-old, in terms of foundation, it's not piling foundation, it's only pad footing, which is characteristic of buildings in that era,” the director of MRT Corp's commercial and stakeholder relations told reporters in a media briefing.

Apart from safety reasons, he explained that it would not be feasible to allow one-third of the Ampang Park mall to remain standing during MRT construction work as the support systems for the mall is centralised.

In illustrating the differences in the case of Ampang Park with the MRT construction work at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Haris said no land acquisition was required as the station is being built directly under the road instead of where the malls are.

In the case of the similarly contentious MRT construction in the Jalan Sultan or Petaling Street area, Haris noted that only tunnelling work under the privately-owned buildings were required. Three government-owned buildings there were demolished for the construction of an MRT station.

On the selection of the Ampang Park mall as an MRT station for the Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP) line, Haris said it was to integrate the rail system with the Light Rail Transit (Kelana Jaya line).

“It has a very high density ridership so it's a very critical station. This is the one and only part (in the SSP line) where it intersects with the Kelana Jaya line,” he said, noting that passengers will be able to switch train lines through a paid 135 metre-long link that will only take about two minutes and 15 seconds to walk to the existing LRT station.

MRT Corp projects that the Ampang Park MRT station will have 11,531 passengers per hour in the morning, while planned adjacent MRT stations KLCC East and Conlay will have 8,264 and 5,438 passengers at peak hours in the mornings when the SSP line becomes operational in 2022.

Other spots like the KLCC East MRT station at the Jalan Binjai area is not suitable for the train line interchange as it would be too far, Haris said, also saying that the Ampang Park station cannot be skipped as there is a need to disperse riders and prevent too much loading at other stations.

According to MRT Corp's timeline for the Ampang Park station construction, the firm plans to have the site in its possession by April 2016.

Construction work for the Ampang Park MRT station is scheduled to begin next year and end by July 2022.

Haris said MRT Corp is still in talks with those holding the 253 strata titles of Ampang Park mall, including the Low Keng Huat family that owns about 100 lots, with negotiations done with the Ampang Park Management Corporation as the official group representing these owners.

If the Ampang Park mall owners agree to the land acquisition by the government, compensation would be paid according to valuation by both government valuers and a valuer appointed by the owners or tenants and paid by the government, Haris said.

The owners will not be able to object the acquisition and are only allowed to appeal against the compensation amount to the Land Administrator, he said.

In the case of land acquisition, ownership of the land ― both the surface and underground land - will be completely transferred to the government or the Federal Land Commissioner.

If a mutual agreement is reached between MRT Corp and all Ampang Park mall owners of the 253 strata titles however, the owners will be able to retain their rights to the surface land and redevelop the demolished site after MRT Corp's underground construction works end seven years later, Haris said.

The mutual agreement option would not be available if even one of the 253 strata title owners opt out, as all of them together are considered the legitimate owner of the mall, he said.

Typical terms that would be discussed in mutual agreements is the owners' temporary relocation costs, loss of rental revenue and the differential sum that MRT Corp will pay for reinforcement works that the owners have to carry out in their redevelopment due to the MRT station's existence, he said.

MRT Corp will meet the Ampang Park mall owners again next Tuesday as part of ongoing talks, with a land acquisition hearing expected by early December this year.