Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said said the central market's development works are to to be executed soon as scheduled.
“It is high time that development and refurbishment are initiated for the convenience of the traders, customers and visitors of the Payang Central Market,
“Discussions were done, and traders' agreement were obtained, the state government will do everything agreed, including the fish traders' request to move to another space to be provided near their original place,” he said, adding that the development of the market as well as preserving its original name are no longer part of the market's pending issue.
“I do not understand when certain quarters, who failed to understand the state government's effort, talk about aesthetics and heritage," Ahmad added, saying that if the state government wants to preserve heritage, it will conjure something like a 'Heritage Bazaar', preserving the tradition aspects, while also embossing it with modernism aspect like including escalators, air-conditioning and high-quality security system.
He also reiterated that the market's narrow spaces and dirty condition compromises the state capital's reputation as the Waterfront Heritage City, the tag associated with Kuala Terengganu when it was conferred the city status in 2008.
Earlier this year, after the Public Works Department confirmed the market's compromised safety condition, Ahmad had in February announced its revamp; a plan to modernise it into a four-storey, air-conditioned market, together with the construction of a 23-storey, 550-room five-star hotel and a 30-storey apartment in a project involving a whopping investment of RM400 million.
On May 23, during the Terengganu State Tourism Association (PPNT) 24th general meeting, its chairman Wan Supian Wan Ishak had asked the state government to review its intention to demolish the central market to make way for an integrated complex with a new market, hotel and apartment.
Wan Supian said as it is the state's heritage and iconic structure, considerations should be made for it to remain.
"If it is torn down, Terengganu will lose an iconic heritage, a traditional structure so synonymous with local and foreign tourists' mention of Terengganu, which has made it a must-visit shopping and sight-seeing location here,
"Replaced to a modern concept, with adjoining hotel and apartment, the 'real' Pasar Payang with its traditional attractiveness will be gone," he said, adding that instead of demolishing it, the state government can enhance the building by conducting proper repair and restoration works, ensuring its safety aspects are improved in the process.- New Straits Times
No comments:
Post a Comment