Developing RRI land
AS a person who was born and spent his childhood years in the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRI), Sungei Buloh, it is with some nostalgia that I read about plans to develop the area.
That piece of land now straddling a bustling area near Kota Damansara, Subang Airport and the rapidly developing area of Subang, houses the RRI’s research facilities and rubber estates.
For those who lived there a long time ago, it was a tranquil and idyllic area with swimming and paddling in the streams, sports of all sorts in the evenings, hunting, biking and excursions into the jungle nearby. Tigers were said to have been sighted and someone even shot a leopard once.
But the area around it is virtually unrecognisable now and the RRI land stands like an oasis in a desert of poorly planned development. But it will fall to development too as the land has been sold, reported for RM2bil to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). RRI will get to retain 216ha for its research facilities.
EPF’s wholly-owned subsidiary Kwasa Land Sdn Bhd will undertake a master plan of the entire area, the area for development will be split up into smaller parcels and the private sector will be invited to tender for their development.
There are plans to have an MRT station too in the area and the whole development is expected to take 10 to 15 years.
No doubt, EPF was chosen by the Government to get the RRI land because it is a provident fund whose members comprise most of the workers in the country and it would therefore be seen as a more neutral and independent party to develop the land.
It is necessary that it gets expertise to both produce the master plan as well as to see how it can maximise the value of the land for itself.
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