The StarMetro report on Feb 14.
THE Ipoh City Council will convene a meeting in April with the Privatisation Committee to discuss the redevelopment plans for Waller Court, the oldest flats in Ipoh.Ipoh mayor Datuk Rumaizi Baharin said several companies had shown interest in redeveloping the area.
Once a decision is made during the meeting, the city council will propose the idea to the state government, he said.
“We do have long-term development plans, and there are already about six companies that are interested in the project.
“We need to study the proposals to ensure the best for the people and the residents there,” he said after the city council full board meeting.
Rumaizi added that the city council and the police occasionally carried out joint enforcement operations to ensure there were no illegals occupying the flats, and to curb other criminal activities.
However, he said whenever such operations were performed, the city council failed to spot illegals in the area.
“They probably spotted us coming and managed to run away.
“But we do carry out spot checks often,” he added.
On Feb 14, StarMetro reported that talk was rife that Waller Court could finally be seeing a new dawn, after repeated proposals to redevelop it failed to take off.
Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming had announced in December last year that the dilapidated flats – once considered the longest in South-East Asia – would be refurbished and the area redeveloped.
Waller Court consists of 19 four-storey blocks with a total of 536 units with either one or two bedrooms.
It was built in 1962 by then Ipoh Municipal Council president SP Seenivasagam and his brother DR Seenivasagam.
The flats were rented out to low-income earners.
However, the 60-year-old blocks have turned into an eyesore over the past decade, with many units sporting broken doors and windows, and some having been ravaged by fire.
The flats have also become a magnet for crime as drug addicts and the homeless seek shelter within its drab and unpainted walls.
