Despite facing strong opposition and worried voices from the ground, MRT Corporation chief executive officer Azhar Abdul Hamid has stated that the MRT project will not acquire any private property, but instead will make it become “better”.

NONE In fact, Azhar ( left ) said that the corporation will help the century-old street to be gazetted as a heritage area.

Speaking at a press conference after the signing ceremony with the project delivery partner of the project, MMC-Gamuda Joint Venture Sdn Bhd, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission today, Azhar said that the alignment has been a done deal way before the setting-up of MRT Corp.

He said that the company is not going to acquire any property in Jalan Sultan or Chinatown, except for those needed for the construction of the station.

“For all the other private properties, we are not acquiring,” he said, adding that the issue of realignment really didn’t come into the picture.

“Because it’s basically underground and we had agree the alignment before, as I said. And we don’t see a reason why a few residents are demanding realignment, (because) it doesn’t change the landscape of Chinatown.

“In fact, it’s going to improve the location because more people are going to be able to come to the location, and there are going to be more business and there are going to be more vibrancy at night because it’s easier to get to, and people don’t have to worry about parking their cars or whatever,” he added.

NONE Last Sunday, some 3,000 people flooded Jalan Sultan for a cultural performance.

They were calling for the government to consider realigning the project so as to conserve the heritage of the area.

As such, Azhar dismissed the notion that the multi-billion project didn’t care a bit about the cultural heritage of the area.

“This is not true... I will assist them, talking to the government to gazette that place as a heritage area. I think the government will be very happy with that.

“We already mentioned it to the government but we have not signed anything with the residents, so we have not done anything, but as far as being committed to help, changing the place into a permanent gazetted heritage area, we said that we would help,” he said.

Clarifying the mutual agreement

He also clarified why a property owner along Jalan Sultan had received a letter from the land office, to ask them sign a mutual agreement with MRT Corp, or else their property would be acquired.

“Before MRT Corp came along, there was an initiative to compulsorily acquire their property for MRT. Then with the permission and approval of the government, we initiated negotiations to arrive at mutual agreement so that we wouldn’t have to acquire (the land).

“However, we cannot withdraw that initial process of acquisition until all agree. So once the property owners have agreed on the mutual agreement with MRT Corp, and we sign all the documents, then the compulsory acquisition process will be withdrawn.

“I know that has created a little bit of confusion but that is the situation today on the ground. That’s why we are in a hurry to complete the mutual agreement with the lot owners at Jalan Sultan and also at Bukit Bintang,” he said.