Sacked Melaka Gateway developer files suit to challenge state govt’s termination of land reclamation concession notice

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 — Former Melaka Gateway sole developer KAJ Development Sdn Bhd has today filed a judicial review to challenge the termination of the land reclamation concession notice issued by the Melaka state government in October.

In a statement, the company said it had submitted several written requests to the statement to extend the three-year land reclamation concession which began on October 4, 2017 but to no avail, with the notice of termination issued on October 16 claiming the company failed to complete the project as scheduled.

In the suit, the company therefore said the state government was in breach of the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) 2020 which barred the termination of any construction project suspended due to the country’s pandemic prevention measures until December 31, 2020.

The company said the lawsuit was aimed at procuring the necessary time to be granted by the state government so land reclamation works could be completed as stipulated in the concession agreement.

“All land reclamation activities have been suspended since the movement control order (MCO) was implemented on March 18, 2020 as both equipment used and foreign experts could not return to Malaysia and are still unable to do so.

“As such, we can only resume land reclamation work when all relevant Covid-19 restrictions are fully lifted and no one knows when that will be the case,” the company’s chief executive Datuk Michelle Ong was quoted as saying.

The company made a public appeal last month to be allowed to continue the RM43 billion Melaka Gateway project after the state government said on November 16 that KAJ Development’s contract was terminated after it failed to complete the work by the given date.

In response, the company highlighted how it had spent close to a decade planning and nurturing the project, which entailed the construction of three reclaimed islands, a deep-water port and a cruise terminal and commercial and residential properties.

Ong also claimed that “tens of billions at the minimum” of foreign investment would be lost as several large overseas companies had already pledged future funding to ensure completion of the project.