GEORGE TOWN (Oct 5): Penang’s urban regeneration pilot project to rebuild 50-year-old low-cost housing units has been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
State Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning Committee chairman, Jagdeep Singh Deo said the first phase of the pilot project, involving replacing 300 units of Mahsuri flats in Bayan Baru with new apartments, was initially planned to start at the end of 2020.
“However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the plan to start the redevelopment project has come to a standstill,” he said at a press conference, here, today.
He said Penang was supposed to take the lead in the urban regeneration initiative as there were no laws implemented for such schemes and the Strata Title Act did not provide for such redevelopment.
He also noted that the discussion with the federal government on the redevelopment plan had also been halted due to the change in the federal government.
“For now, we can only look at rectifying the structural issues for aged housing schemes on an ad-hoc basis since we can’t start the urban regeneration project yet,” he said.
He added that the pilot project also involved four other housing schemes, namely in Taman Free School, Rifle Range, Jalan Siakap and Jalan Mak Mandin.
Meanwhile, Jagdeep said an independent consultant had been appointed to survey and evaluate the major cracks in one of the Taman Free School flats.
“We are expecting the consultant to get back to us in two weeks with a report but we will continue to monitor the situation,” he added.
