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NST Online 8th December 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: Two highly controversial hillside projects in the city will be reviewed by the Federal Territories Ministry.
These are the Medan Damansara 21 and Gasing Hill developments.
The ministry’s sensitive areas environment committee will be taking another look at the projects.
“The committee will monitor and review these projects,” Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique said yesterday.
The Medan Damansara 21 project consists of 21 bungalows priced between RM10 million and RM15 million each.
The developer was slapped with a stop-work order in April and fined RM100,000 for failing to comply with safety standards.
The development at Gasing Hill, which sits on a 10-metre ledge facing Pantai Hill Park and the Andalucia condominium, will have 142 bungalows.
Residents living nearby have been protesting against the development, saying it was unsafe.
Zulhasnan said his ministry would also be monitoring hillside projects in Putrajaya and Labuan.
Some controversial hillside projects in the Klang Valley:
- Federal Hill
Residents of Federal Hill are protesting against a project around the Travers police station.
A nine-storey block of police quarters and a three-storey police station are planned, as well as three high-rise blocks of commercial office space.
- Bukit Persiaran project in Bandar Sri Damansara
This project consists of 15 blocks of condominiums of 42 storeys each at Bukit Persiaran in Bandar Sri Damansara.
- Bukit Ceylon project
Residents have questioned the safety aspect of the hillside development.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Frontpage/2422768/Article/index_html
Bukit Antarabangsa landslide: Bitter vindication:
Bukit Antarabangsa landslide disaster – urgent Parliament debate:
I live in the condo at the top of the hill. Want to come visit, Pak Lah? Najib?
I woke up at 7 am this morning although I could have slept in. I woke up because I was worried. Worried about my family’s safety. Worried about our home in Bukit Antarabangsa. Sad about the families who lost loved ones to the landslide. Wanting to get more news of the disaster I turned to Channel News Asia which has proven to be more efficient and on the ball than RTM, TV3 or any of the Malaysian terrestrial stations when it comes to reporting news about Malaysia!!! Yes, I turned on the TV and saw the news. And then I got very angry…NIAMAH!!!
A Landslide hit Bukit Antarabangsa early yesterday, burying 14 houses and cutting off access for thousands of residents and disrupting water, electricity and phone lines. A team led by the Selangor State Assemblyman and Member Of Parliament went to the disaster zone to provide aid to the residents…click on YouTube Video.
thestaronline.tv talked to the residents in the Bukit Antarabangsa area to get their recount of the Saturday morning landslide. Meanwhile, Selangor Chief Police Officer Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar says rescue mission is ongoing for the two missing victims.
PM orders all hillside housing projects stopped
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ordered all hillside housing projects at Bukit Antarabangsa to be stopped pending a soil stability study by the Malaysian Public Works Institute. He spoke to the press after visiting the landslide site Saturday.
Malaysians Unplugged Uncensored:
Landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa (Taman Bukit Utama and Taman Bukit Mewah) –
4 am, 6 December 2008:
LESSONS NEVER LEARNT
LANDSLIDE: NEXT CHAPTER - FINGER-POINTING!
zorro-unmasked:
LANDSLIDE: NEXT CHAPTER – FINGER-POINTING!
Bernama:Bukit Antarabangsa Landslide Updates
MALAYSIAN LANDSLIDES – RESULT OF “SLIMY COLLABORATIONS”?
Update: December 13, 2008, 12:14 am
Whilst Malaysiakini reports that residents of Bukit Antarabangsa are planning to sue the government for their plight, it was of no surprise that the finger pointing exercise between the politicians has also commenced to lay blame for the debacle……More
Update: Sunday, December 14, 2008
NO HOLDS BARRED AND NO PUNCHES PULLED
Today is D5 of the Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy. During the highland tower incident, I was part of the medical team assisting in the rescue and support effort but today I am a victim of a similar tragedy. Something that I never thought that would have an impact on me. Relatively in comparison, what happen to those families who loss their love ones is nothing compared to what me and probably 2000 other residents had to endure past 4 days. Many tragedies took place this time around. I am not going to be diplomatic about it. I will say it the way I see it…by drrafick
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 – In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the earth around the hill slopes of Bukit Antarabangsa, a suburban development in a thickly forested water catchment area in the city, groaned, shook and surged forward, buckling roads, overturning cars, snapping lamp posts, and flattening 14 houses in its wake.
Four people died, 14 others have been injured and over 2,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes.
Almost 15 years ago, 48 people, including the son of former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, died after one of the three Highland Towers condominium blocks located within the same Bukit Antarabangsa area came crashing down as a result of yet another landslide. At the time, then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad put a stop to further hillside development.
Was anyone listening?
One doubts it. Said Benjamin George, an 80-year-old doctor who survived the Highland Towers tragedy: “In three months, the tractors will start work again,” he told the press bitterly. “I have survived long enough to see all this nonsense repeated.”
Predictably, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose private secretary’s house was also crushed in Saturday’s landslide, echoed much of what his predecessor said 15 years ago. Saying that enough is enough, Abdullah decreed that there would be no more hillside housing projects in the area.
“Malaysians never want to learn from past experience,” said Abdullah, waxing philosophical. “They only want good views and developers only want to profit, but no one takes safety and soil stability into consideration.”
Abdullah is seriously missing the point here. In the first place, Bukit Antarabangsa isn’t an isolated case.
Last week, the earth moved in the swank suburb of Damansara Heights, burying 15 cars and forcing the staff of two buildings, including the headquarters of Malaysia’s largest investment bank CIMB, to flee.
And yet, residents of nearby Medan Damansara protesting a massive development of a hill slope area in their backyards have largely had their protests ignored.
Indeed, the developer has sued at least four members of its association for defamation. Even so, the hill slope has been largely denuded, leaving a gaping red wound in the area. Incidentally, Medan Damansara is about a kilometre or so from the CIMB building.
Abdullah should ask who are the people who approved such developments. Which are the agencies who agreed to allow potentially dangerous places to be sliced and diced into houses with a view? Clearly, some procedures aren’t being followed.
If they were, we might not be pondering the imponderable. How was a forest gazetted by the British as a water catchment area allowed to be developed in the first place?
All it takes is for the rules to be strictly enforced. There is, for example, a guideline issued by the Federal, Town and Country Planning Department which says that all development of slopes exceeding 25 degrees should be strictly prohibited.
But these strictures are largely ignored because they aren’t laws but mere guidelines. The solution is obvious. Parliament should make it a law. If it had, the nightmares in Bukit Antarabangsa and Damansara could have been avoided.
And proper drainage systems in a city that is palpably overdeveloped are a must. Anything less is neglect of criminal proportions. One only ignores nature at one’s peril. – Business Times Singapore
Members of the Army Engineering Corp assembling a Vickers BR90 temporary bridge in the Bukit Antarabangsa area. The bridge enabled many trapped residents to cross over to safety after a landslide cut them off and left them trapped. - Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 – The search-and-rescue operation called off yesterday evening was resumed last night at the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide area in Hulu Klang near here to find a missing Sri Lankan maid of veterinary doctor N. Yogeswari who was killed in the tragedy.
Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the operation was resumed at 9.30pm, three hours after it was called off, after an acquaintance of Dr Yogeswari lodged a missing persons report at 8.30pm.
He said the SAR operation was confined to the bungalow at No. 1, Jalan Bukit Mewah where the body of Dr Yogeswari was recovered on Saturday, the day of the landslide which occurred at about 4am, killing four people and destroying or damaging 14 bungalows in Taman Bukit Mewah and Taman Bukit Utama.
Khalid told reporters at the scene the SAR operation had gone on overnight but with extreme caution as there had been earth movements owing to the heavy rain since early morning today.
Meanwhile, about 500 residents of Bukit Antarabangsa are still trapped in their homes as the main access road to the housing estates there remains cut off owing to the landslide, and work to build an alternative route is slowed down by the inclement weather.
“We have been working all night to build the alternative route. The work has been slowed down by the rain,” said Khalid.
He also asked the media to avoid interviewing the affected residents on the situation in the landslide area as there could be conflicting reports.
The media should report to the security authorities if they came across trapped people who had been overlooked so that immediate action could be taken to assist them, he said.
Despite the disaster and the rain this morning, Muslim residents in the area attended Aidil Adha prayers at the Addinniah surau located about 500 metres from the landslide area. Muslims among the people trapped in their homes owing to the cut-off access road attended prayers at the Al-Hidayah Mosque.
The four people who died in the landslide are Dr Yogeswari, 40, accountant Eng Yee Peng, 30, Shaiful Khas Shahrudin, 20, and Indonesian national Surinah, 30s. – Bernama
NST Online 8th December 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: Police has ordered residents of five areas in Bukit Antarabangsa to evacuate as they were on areas deemed unstable following Saturday’s landslide which killed four people.
The affected areas are the Impian Selatan Condominium, all houses in Jalan 6A of Taman Bukit Jaya, all areas of Taman Bukit Mewah and the entire rows of Jalan 9 and 11 of Taman Wangsa Ukay, Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said.
Khalid said he had made a mistake when he said Kyoto Gardens condominium was affected.
The condominium was located outside the danger zone and far from the landslide area.
He said several residents of Jalan 9, Taman Wangsa Ukay had refused to evacuate their homes and police would be using other methods to persuade them to leave.
Khalid also stressed that residents in other areas affected by the landslide were not required to leave their homes. “Do not listen to rumours or news from other sources as they are being spread by people with ulterior motives.”
Khalid said residents affected by the landslide were advised to contact the search and rescue operation tactical base by calling their 24-hour hotlines at 03-4107 0055 and 03-4108 6321.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Frontpage/2422726/Article/index_html
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