PM: Bandar Malaysia will not be exclusively for the rich

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 17 ― The new Bandar Malaysia development will not be exclusively for the rich, as the government has revised the development plan to include 10,000 affordable housing units, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

The earlier plan devised by the previous government only provided for the construction of 5,000 units of affordable houses.

Dr Mahathir said the government wanted to make sure that the people will stay in the new development, saying that these affordable homes could even partly subsidise the development of more expensive projects. 

“This one (Bandar Malaysia) is built in the new centre, we want people to stay within the development and we do not want it to be exclusively for the very rich,” he said at a press conference after witnessing a signing ceremony between TRX City Sdn Bhd and IWH CREC Sdn Bhd to develop Bandar Malaysia here today.

On the percentage of participation by Bumiputera contractors in Bandar Malaysia’s project, he said it has yet to be determined.

“However, we hope Bumiputera will participate, probably more than 30 per cent,” he added.

Dr Mahathir was also asked on whether Bandar Malaysia would still house the Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) station. 

“Yes, it will have HSR although we have not decided on the actual project itself, but it will have an HSR station,” he said, adding that Malaysia would continue the HSR project, but the government is currently mulling the most suitable speed for the train.

“We will go ahead but we have to find out what is the most suitable speed that we should have. It is not necessary for it to be 400km per hour. 

“We would like to spend less money, it is very expensive for a high speed train. Maybe we can scale down or do some adjustments in order to reduce the cost; maybe less speed can contribute to cost deduction,” he added. ― Bernama