The Perak state government has approved in principle the construction of a RM60 million cable car system at Bukit Larut in Taiping. The contract will go to "a company with a good track record" with the assurance that the resorts ecological settings would not be disturbed. State Education, Local Government, Housing and Public Transport Committee chairman Nga Kor Ming said the project had the support of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Department of Environment. A visitor will take 11 minutes to reach the 1,250m peak of the resort from the bottom of the mountain, compared with the 30-minute, 13km ride via four-wheel-drive or government Land Rover. "The cable will stretch up between 5 and 6km and will have 26 cable cars in the first phase and 46 cars which can carry 1,000 visitors." (NST, Jan 15) 


   Endangered Mammals List.

Please refer to the 2007 issue below, the cost and design capacity is the same is the same but Nga said its a new project. Taipingites and Malaysians are not blind. WWF also never supported this project. Department of Environment has no jurisdiction if the development area id below 50 hectares. Our discussion with DoE only end up with we have no jurisdiction to request for DEIA (Detailed Environment Impact Assessment), so the approval is by default just like in BUKIT ANTARABANGSA.

State Public Utility and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Datuk Ho Cheng Wang said the final decision would only be made after more discussions with the company. (The Star, August 5)

The Perak State Government will have to determine if Bukit Larut can handle a large number of visitors before it allows a cable car system to operate here. A private company, which operates a cable car system in Langkawi, has reportedly expressed interest in operating a similar system in Bukit Larut but Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali said the state would have to first determine if the plan was economically viable. --- Tajol Rosli said the company had told him that the project would cost an estimated RM 60 million. (The Star, May 6)

This is the year that everything started. A RM 200 million project to developed (a.k.a. destroy) Bukit Larut was planned. The rest are episodes of this announcement. The issue was raised by Taiping Consumer Association and ERA Consumer. Now it is being fought by FOMCA in support of the spirit of both the organisation. We have also published a Ecology Study Book in 1997. However, none of the Perak state representative seems to understand the content of the book. We are also in the effort of translating it into Bahasa Malaysia.