THE Penang developer, whose apartment project in Lembah Permai was hit by a landslide recently, is looking into how to protect the interests of its clients who had bought its units.

The developer’s lawyer Lim Choo Hooi said an emergency meeting had been called this morning by the developer, Taman Sri Bunga Sdn Bhd, to address the matter.

He said the meeting was immediately called after Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng demanded that the developer meet its clients to explain the landslide and brief them on the current status of the project.

“The matter was discussed following the chief minister’s statement this morning. We are looking into how we can protect the interest of the apartment unit buyers.

“The developer will issue a statement soon to explain how it will settle the matter with its clients,” Choo Hooi told The Malaysian Insight.

Earlier this morning, Guan Eng said the developer, a property division of the well-known development firm BSG Property, had one week to settle matters with the apartment buyers.

“Failing which, the state government will intervene on behalf of the apartment buyers,” he told a press conference at Komtar.

The landslide at the Granito@Permai construction site on Lorong Lembah Permai 3 in Tanjung Bungah last Saturday morning killed 10 foreign workers and a Malaysian site supervisor.

Local authorities had since issued an immediate stop-work order on the construction, which was to build an affordable 50-storey apartment project.

The state has also blacklisted companies and consultants involved in the development until the state’s commission of inquiry into the landslide completed its investigation and report on the incident.

The commission was formally announced by Guan Eng yesterday. It has three months to investigate the cause of the landslide, which the state government and local authorities said was a construction site incident.

Taman Sri Bunga director Alfred Chew in a statement yesterday said the developer had also put together a team of consultants to conduct a full post-mortem on the incident.

He said the well-known engineering firm Arup Jururunding Sdn Bhd (Penang) had been appointed to come up with an independent assessment to determine what led to the landslide and propose short- and long-term safety measures to ensure prevent recurrence. – October 26, 2017.