River of Life project reaches 81% progress, land value appreciated by 87%, says Dr Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR: The River of Life (ROL) project which is likely to fail to meet its completion deadline this year has reached progress of 81%, says Dr Zaliha Mustafa.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) said as of June 30, 130 out of the 160 projects under the RM4.36bil mega project have been completed.

In her ministry’s reply to the debates on the Auditor-General’s 2/2024 report, Dr Zaliha said the total cost of ROL is RM4.36bil, whereby RM3.3bil was allocated for the cleaning component while RM1.06bil was for the beautification of the river.

Three projects have been retendered while six have been cancelled.

Despite the issues with the project, Dr Zaliha said the Klang and Gombak rivers have achieved the status of being an iconic waterfront.

She said that based on the land revaluation conducted by the Valuation and Property Services Department last year, ROL land had appreciated by 87% or RM5.3bil from RM6.1bil in 2012 to RM11.4bil.

Recently, the Auditor-General’s report revealed that the project is expected to be delayed and will not meet its deadline.

“This includes ROL’s objectives to improve the river water quality to Class IIB (suitable for recreational use with body contact), which is hard to achieve, due to weakness in planning, implementation, low level of asset operations, as well as low level of river care awareness.

“Putrajaya’s aspiration to get a return of up to RM4bil to finance the cost of implementing the ROL and avoid using public funds is also not achieved because the proceeds of land sales are subject to the respective owners,” the report read.

The report also noted that RM3.915bil has been spent on the RM4.363bil ROL project.

The implementation of the ROL project aims to transform the Klang River and Gombak River Basin areas from a previously uncompetitive and dirty river to a dynamic and habitable waterfront icon with high economic value.