KL's Rivers To Be At Par With Singapore, Seoul

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- The River of Life Project (ROL), outlined under the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley (Greater KL/KV) will position Kuala Lumpur at par with Singapore and Seoul in terms of beautifying rivers and the water fronts. Global cities like Singapore and Seoul have undertaken similar projects to clean their rivers and develop their water fronts. The ROL project is aimed at revitalising the Klang and Gombak rivers to open up economic opportunities and would see river banks undergo a major transformation. The river cleaning initiatives are divided into 67 packages, whereas 45 packages have been completed and 22 are on-going. "The revitalisation of the ROL project also involves recouping of returns from the US$1.12 billion (RM4.4 billion) invested in the ROL through land development projects in the vicinity of these rivers," said Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in the 2015 National Transformation Programme Annual Report. He also said that the plan to transform KL into a green city was on-track. As at Dec 31, 2015, a total of 171,097 trees were planted by the local authorities, public and private sector. The report also revealed that progression in the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) works, High-Speed Rail and sanitation and solid waste management in 2015 proved that Greater KL was set to revolutionise the capital city as a regional investment hub. However, as for 2016, Tengku Adnan opined that the year would be exciting and challenging, as some major projects would record important milestones this year. "Even so, more needs to be done to assure the momentum amidst the backdrop of global economic headwinds," he said. He said the Key Performance Index under the MRT construction is on track, within the timeline and without cost overruns," said Tengku Adnan. The MRT's full line (Sungai Buloh - Kajang) is scheduled to be operational by July 2017. Another big-next-thing for the country is the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail Project, however, governments of both countries are still in the stage of identifying and defining the technical, commercial, security and regulatory characteristics of the project. -- BERNAMA