SDB to continue slope stabilisation work

PETALING JAYA: Property developer Selangor Dredging Bhd (SDB), which is embroiled in a tussle with residents living below the hill where the 5.68-acre freehold Damansara 21 project is located, will continue with slope stabilisation work pending new guidelines on hillslope developments.

Last Friday, Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique announced the temporary halt on structural works at the project while a 34-storey serviced apartment project in downtown Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Ceylon has also been halted pending a decision by the Government.

Asked whether the company would file for compensation from the Government should the project be scrapped, SDB communications and corporate affairs manager Lina Othman said in an email reply: “There was no notification that the project is to be halted indefinitely.”

She said the company would continue with the stabilisation work as required by the relevant authorities and await the new guidelines on hillslope developments.

Lina said the slope stabilisation work and development cost had come up to “approximately RM15mil”. Past reports had put the cost of stabilising the hillslope at more than RM30mil.

The land parcel was bought for RM52mil, or at RM200 per sq ft, from Malaysian Assurance Alliance Bhd in August 2005 and came complete with a development order and building plans in place.

“We’ve planned that slope stabilisation and earthworks are to be completed before launch, so the sum spent on slope stabilisation has been taken into account. Building construction costs have not been incurred,” Lina said.

She said to ensure that the land could be built on, the company would improve the factor of safety to a minimum 1.4. “We’re currently in the midst of making the land safer. In terms of factor of safety, even prior to commencing work on the site, there were localised landslips as the factor of safety for certain parts of the land was less than one,” Lina said.

She said the project was targeted for an end-2009 launch but might be deferred depending on the economic situation at the time. The project, which has a gross development value of RM250mil, comprises 21 five-storey bungalows priced from RM10mil to RM15mil, and was scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, according to several reports.

A source familiar with the matter said that based on the logic of what the company had spent to stabilise the soil of the hillslope and what it still had to spend, “the least the Government can do is to compensate the company for what it has spent on stabilising the land should the project be scrapped.”

“It’ll be a case precedent what the company can claim from City Hall,” he told StarBiz yesterday. “Short of that, it will be deceiving since the company bought the land with the understanding that it can be developed.”

When the site was purchased, he said, the company was prepared to carry out the work to stabilise the land for development. “I don’t think the Government has any grounds to stop the project, there’s no reason as long as the company is doing it right.”

By The Star (by Fintan Ng)