KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — The controversial Taman Dusun Bandar in Jalan Bellamy which was opened to the public last September remains neglected.
Worse still, thieves have apparently been stealing fruits in large quantities from the orchard.
“We have to constantly patrol the area because there are people who come in and steal the fruits," said a Kuala Lumpur City Hall patrol officer who was present when Malay Mail visited the orchard recently.
“It would not be an issue if they want to take one or two pieces for tasting, but they take the fruits by the bagload,” he said.
The officer explained that most of the trees in the orchard were about six years old with a few newly planted last year.
He said the fruits were not for sale or for public consumption, but to educate the public on the various species of fruit trees.
Checks by Malay Mail, however, revealed the objective was not met as the majority of the trees remained unlabelled.
About 70 per cent of the trees had unhealthy leaves — partially or fully dried up and with insect-ridden holes in them.
Malay Mail had, in a series of reports in 2011, revealed the RM17.2 million orchard hardly had any fruit trees. Many of the trees were also infected with disease and some had wilted due to poor drainage.
Shockingly, the contractor Zikhtar Associates Sdn Bhd, had admitted to allocating only RM600,000 for fruit trees but insisted the park had met its objective.
This prompted then mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail to shut the park and he promised to only open it once the shortcomings had been rectified.
In 2005, then mayor Datuk Ruslin Hassan, in announcing the project, said the orchard park would have 100 species of local fruit trees. Ruslin had said the park would be one of the city’s major tourist attractions.
The Auditor-General’s Report last year revealed the contract for the RM17.2 million project was entered through direct negotiations not approved by the Finance Ministry.
The report noted that the contractor and architect had no experience developing fruit orchards and the contractor only had experience in cutting grass on road reserves.
Deeming the project a failure, the Auditor-General found more than 55 per cent of fruit trees planted by the contractor had died.
No one has since taken responsibility for the failure of the project.
