The Local Government Development Ministry said it has identified 481 ‘sick’ projects and 112 abandoned projects across the country so far, its deputy minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said.

Besides a task force to oversee the matter, the ministry is in talks with the relevant agencies and is in direct negotiations with the National Water Services Commission and the Public Works Department in efforts to revive the projects.

“Sick and abandoned projects are those which have exceeded their scheduled completion period and it takes longer to revive them as discussions over long periods are needed,” he said.

Under the 1Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA), there were 21 sick projects, but eight of those projects were successfully completed by the ministry within five months.

“We want to complete at least 10 PR1MA projects this year and are confident we can achieve this target.

“We will continue to monitor closely through regular meetings with technical agencies and local authorities (PBT) to avoid issues arising between developers and government agencies,” he said.

Akmal Nasrullah said to ensure these sick projects can be completed according to the proposed time period, close cooperation between the Federal and state governments should be done continuously and proactively.

“Kelantan is one of the states with the highest percentage of private housing projects that do not follow the set plan.

“Therefore, we project late and sick projects to be reduced from 50 percent to 20 percent by 2024,” he said.