IPOH: The construction of Bagan Datuk Water City’s (BDWC) infrastructures had been halted temporarily to allow a fund review to be carried out.
State Investment and Corridor Development Committee chairman, Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said it was crucial to review the status of the project as the payment made did not tally with the current project progress.
“The project is not canceled but suspended temporarily to make way for a review. It is learnt that the project progress is at less than 15 per cent but the previous Federal Government had paid as if it was 80 percent completed,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya (BN-Rungkup) who asked on the status of BDWC during the state legislative assembly meeting on Thursday.
“The Perak State Development Corporation (PKNP) was informed about this by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) on July 9.
“However, as an integrated township that includes administrative, institutional, commercial and housing components that are co-dependent, PKNP had hoped the development of Bagan Datuk district administration centre will be continued,” said Nizar.
He said a total of 15 projects under the BDWC was currently being scrutinised by the relevant agency, ministry and department; and PKNP had nothing to do with the implementation of the projects.
“PKNP still contacting the related agency, ministry and the department to get the latest update on the projects.
“To date, the status on the Bagan Datuk district police headquarters is postponed; housing projects are awaiting decision from the top management while the district administration centre project is in progress,” he said.
He said for the district administration centre, it was now in the phase of completing master layout plan, environmental impact assessment reports, traffic impact studies and social impact studies before getting a green light from the related agencies.
“PKNP does not plan to carry out physical work at the site until we received allocation from the Federal Government,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shahrul Zaman in a press conference later said he hoped the state government would reconsider its decision either to cancel or postpone the projects which have reached 15 percent for the sake of the people.
“Bagan Datuk is a new district and there are many development programmes have been approved by the previous government because this new district is left behind in terms of development.
“We hope the government did not sideline the Bagan Datuk parliamentary represented by Barisan Nasional and Umno president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Make a fair decision,” he said.