‘MRT Corp regularly engaged with strata owners’
KUALA LUMPUR: The Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) said it has regularly engaged with strata owners of the Ampang Park shopping centre with regards to land acquisition for public infrastructure.
In response to allegations by the Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs Alliance of Malaysia, MRT Corp’s strategic communications and stakeholder relations director Datuk Najmuddin Abdullah said it had held several townhall sessions with stakeholders.
“We had engaged with strata title owners of Ampang Park mall at least four times in 2015. We met on October 15, October 20, November 3 and December 16,” he said, here, yesterday.
Najmuddin said MRT Corp had, in accordance with the country’s land laws, offered mutual agreement for co-existence.
This alternative saves the property from acquisition but requires all strata lot owners to agree to the MRT line and a pedestrian linkway between the future MRT station and existing LRT station to be built below the Ampang Park shopping centre.
This option, however, was rejected by the owners as they did not come back with any decision or an alternative proposal by the agreed deadline, which was on January 31 last year, he said.
“The option, which required the owners of all 253 strata lots to fully agree, is a legal requirement under our country’s land laws.”
He cited the Strata Titles Act 1985 and Strata Management Act 2013, which require all strata title owners to agree to land acquisition at market price to make way for public infrastructure projects.
“Instead, 39 of the 253 strata owners had filed for a judicial review on January 8 last year instead of coming back with a proposal to us,” said Najmuddin.
“Their fate now depends on their actions. If they had agreed to go ahead with the mutual agreement, we could have discussed further and things could have been different.”
On January 18, the Court of Appeal rejected the application submitted by 39 strata title owners in Ampang Park on the land acquisition to pave way for the Ampang Park MRT station.
“So now, we have to wait for the Federal Court, the apex of the judicial system, to decide on this matter,” he added.
The Ampang Park MRT station is a part of the 52.2km Line 2, which is expected to be completed by 2022. Ooi Tee Ching