TAMAN Tun Dr Ismail residents are hopeful that the massive project at Taman Rimba Kiara will be stopped after a meeting with former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

Save Taman Rimba Kiara committee member Khairudin Rahim said that Daim who has always been concerned about the park had invited them for a dialogue at Ilham Tower yesterday.

“He wanted to hear our views and concerns on the park. It was a fact finding mission for him.

“No decision has been made, but we are hopeful of a good outcome,” he told The Malaysian Insight.  

Daim is the chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP). Its mandate had expired on August 20, but Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that the CEP will not be disbanded even though its 100-day term had ended.

Save Taman Rimba Kiara is against development work at the park and has taken the developer Memang Perkasa Sdn Bhd and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to court.

They are seeking a judicial review to quash the development order granted by DBKL to the developer.

Khairudin hopes that with help from Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad and Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh the green lung in Kuala Lumpur will remain untouched.

Taman Rimba Kiara had been designated as a public open space under the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020.

“We also hope that an unfulfilled promise for the longhouse residents (will be met) and that they will get homes at the existing site.

“We want the project stopped.”

The project, approved in November, involves the building of eight blocks of high-end serviced apartments (between 42 and 54 storeys), and a 30-storey block of affordable housing. – August 24, 2018.