The TTDI story: Spotlight on how public park land became site for condo project
(MMO) – Residents at Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) are questioning how almost half of a public park was quietly taken away to be turned into a private plot of land for nine condominium blocks.
Save Taman Rimba Kiara Group’s co-ordinator Leon Koay disputed the federal government’s insistence that an upcoming high-rise project will not be built on the public park’s land, pointing out the purported private land had always been part of public land.
“So this is the point of contention, in 2010 there was no title at all but in 2012, a lot title was created for this whole piece which denotes that they always treated it as one piece.
“And then in 2014 they cut the whole thing in half, where is the public process to do this? This is our contention, this is the issue that we are raising,” he told Malay Mail Online when met recently.
A search conducted in 2010 showed that there was no land title for the whole Taman Rimba Kiara land. — Picture courtesy of Save Taman Rimba Kiara
He showed us a land title search dated February 3, 2010 where the entire Taman Rimba Kiara was unmarked, followed by a land title search carried out on June 22, 2012 where the entire park was shown bearing the new plot number 55118.
He also showed a subsequent map where the 55118 plot representing Taman Rimba Kiara is halved with the upper portion of the land now designated for the project site.
The land for the project site now carries the lot number PT9244 under Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan, with the title issued on August 11, 2014 to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan for the purpose of mixed development.
Portion of land title search in 2012 showing plot number issued for the entire Taman Rimba Kiara. — Picture courtesy of Save Taman Rimba Kiara
“So here’s our issue, they keep on saying that they are not going to develop Taman Rimba Kiara, but the problem here is the definition of what is Taman Rimba Kiara.
“Their definition today is it is only 13 acres, the lower section of 55118… what is left of 55118, but there was a time when 55118 was 25 acres.
“We can see that from the 2012 search and there was a time before that in 2010 when it was just government land, public land,” he said.
TTDI residents say Taman Rimba Kiara land was halved, with the portion for the high-rise project given the land title of PT9244. — Picture courtesy of Save Taman Rimba Kiara
“The surprising and probably disappointing thing here is that the entity that is benefiting from this privatisation of the land is actually a government entity,” he said, referring to the Federal Territories Ministry’s welfare arm Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan.
“Effectively the government has decided to alienate public land to a quasi-public entity for private use. How did that happen? If you want to use it, use it for public use,” he said.
