A raw deal for KTMB?

By Anil Netto,

Did you catch the front page of theSun today? It’s an important story not to be missed – for KTMB needs all the money it can get to upgrade its archaic rail system.

For a glimpse at what visitors think of our railway system, check out a feature in TIME here.

Yesterday, we saw how the Sarawak government would lose hundreds of millions of ringgit if land in Kuching was sold at bargain basement prices. And now this. The big question in this case is – apart from KTMB being deprived of the full value of the land – who is going to be the ‘lucky’ developer?

Image via Wikipedia

An unfair deal?
Terence Fernandez and Llew-Ann Phang

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 26, 2010): IsKeretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad(KTMB) getting a raw deal in the development of a piece of railway land in Bangsar?

This is the question on the lips of those concerned with recent developments of the 8ha site behind the former the Unilever headquarters along Jalan Bangsar.

Said to be worth at least RM400 million, the national railway company may be paid only RM50 million for giving up the prime real estate. The concerns were so great that in 2008, then KTMB chairman Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek raised the matter with then prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He was concerned that KTMB was on the losing end as the RM50 million “compensation” offered by Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputra Bhd, now known as Pelaburan Hartanah Bhd (PHB), is far less than the market value of the property.

PHB is the subsidiary of Yayasan Amanah Hartanah Bumiputera, a foundation initiated in 2006 with RM2 billion capital, to raise bumiputra property ownership.

In 2007, the Valuation and Property Services Department valued the tract of land at RM299.477 million or roughly RM350 per sq ft. “Today the land is worth at least RM350 million,” said a property consultant.

In his budget speech in 2006, Abdullah, who was finance minister, said the land will be surrendered to PHB to be developed. Full story in theSun here.