Khazanah Nasional Berhad has been urged to reveal more details about the cost breakdown of the Taman Tugu project in Kuala Lumpur, if it wants to convince the public that the park is a good idea.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming welcomed the details revealed so far, including that less than 5 percent of the RM650 million budget would be for planting trees, dispelling misconceptions that it would just be a tree-planting exercise.

However, the DAP lawmaker (photo) told Malaysiakini that Khazanah needs to do a better job of explaining the project and dispelling other misconceptions.

"A lot of people, myself included, think that the park is just at the area that surrounds Tugu Negara,” Ong said, referring to the National Monument.

"But the proposed location of the park – it's basically an overgrown area of forest. The public don't use it right now, they can't access it and if they want to go inside, it'll be very difficult.

"That hasn't been communicated well by Khazanah. People think it's just beautifying the area surrounding Tugu Negara. These details need to be spelled out.”

He said one good way to do this is to show a before-and-after visual graphic of the park.

Other details that need to be elaborated on are the park connectors and walkways, which can be quite costly, he added.

As it is, the breakdown is not very convincing, he said, and that he himself would need to see further details before commenting further on the project.

A mini tropical rainforest

Yesterday, Khazanah revealed that the RM650 million budget would cover four components of the project, that is (1) conserving and activating the park, (2) connecting the surrounding areas, (3) the learning and innovation centre as well as the (4) operations, maintenance, partnerships and community development of the park for up to 12 years.

About 15 percent of the costs would go towards the fourth component, that is operations and maintenance, he explained, while the remaining costs would be split roughly one-thirds for the other three components.

Khazanah would be footing RM500 million for the project, and assured that it would not take away funds for public healthcare and education.

The Taman Tugu project was announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last Sunday.

Najib had expressed hope that the 'mini tropical forest in the city' would become an iconic part of Kuala Lumpur.

However, the opposition has criticised the project, with PAS describing the project as superfluous during times of hardship for the rakyat.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in mid-2018 and the final completion is slated for year 2020.