KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 ― Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abd Samad gave the assurance that the identity of Kampung Baru would be maintained, with its Malay and Islamic characteristics that have existed for more than 100 years to be preserved.

He said the ministry also planned to set up a Malay heritage park, including providing a venue for staging of Malay theatre, in the development of Kampung Baru.

"Several buildings such as the Kampung Baru Mosque and the Sultan Sulaiman Club will be preserved, with the names of roads there to be maintained.

"What is important for us is to develop the Malay community in the area. We want to build a Malay settlement that is modern, fully-equipped, comfortable and well-planned,” he said when appearing as a guest  on TV1 talk show Bicara Naratif last night.

 On the development of Kampung Baru, he said town hall meetings would continue to be held with land owners or their beneficiaries to get their approval to develop their property and to explain the objective of the development.

"So far the ministry has received feedback from 40 per cent of the residents of Kampung Baru,” he added.

The government had offered RM1,000 per square foot as the final price to buy over land in Kampung Baru.

In another development, Khalid said efforts would be made to implement the Kuala Lumpur City Development Plan 2040.

"There are problems to get it (Kuala Lumpur City Development Plan 2040) implemented because of the development that had been carried out which was not done according to the master plan.

"So, we want to correct this situation , which is going to  take a lot of work and impossible to be done in a short time,” he added. ― Bernama