Demolition of Ampang Park crucial to safety aspect

He said it was not feasible just to demolish two-thirds of the building, leaving the remaining one-third standing, to ensure safety construction because the mall was built with pad footing foundation and not piling foundation.

"Although the underground Ampang Park MRT Station does not take up the entire lot belonging to Ampang Park Shopping Complex, the entire building has to be demolished for the construction of the MRT Station.

"If a major portion of the building is demolished, the safety of the remaining structure will be affected... it is typical of buildings built during that era," he said when contacted by Bernama, here, today.

Haris said furthermore, services for the building, such as the power supply system, air conditioning system, water sewerage, toilets and emergency exit locations were designed for the building as a whole.

"These services may be affected when two-thirds of the building are demolished and it may no longer be able to function properly if we leave one-third of the building untouched.

"The entrance to the basement carpark is located at the section of the building directly affected by the construction of the MRT Station and this means there will no longer be an entrance to the basement if one-third of the building is left untouched," he said.

It was reported that the Ampang Park Station was important since its line would be integrated with the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP) line and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Kelana Jaya line.

The Ampang Park Shopping Centre was built in 1973.

The shopping mall is now in the process of being acquired by the government under the Land Acquisition Act 1960 for the purpose of constructing the Ampang Park Station for the MRT SSP line.