LRT IS ONE OF THE PROPOSED PROJECTS IN THE IPOH LOCAL PLANNING DRAFT 2035

 

IPOH: State Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi who represented the Menteri Besar to launch the Ipoh City Local Planning Draft 2035 Public Participation and Publicity Programme and the Greater Ipoh Tourism Branding and Action Plan held at Casuarina@Meru Hotel, here.

Also present were Datuk Bandar Datuk Rumaizi Baharin @ Md Daud, Plan Malaysia Deputy Chief director (Planning) Datuk Mohd Faidzal Hamzah and PlanMalaysia @ Perak director Asni Mustafa.

 

 

Nolee said that under the Ipoh City Local Planning, there were three projects which were in the pipeline that would benefit the people, here.

“Firstly, the upgrading of public transport includes constructing of ‘light rail transit’ (LRT) to make moving from one place to another easier.

 

 

“Secondly, is the development of Silver Valley High Tech Park which will assist in bringing in investors to the state as well as provide job opportunities to the people.

“Thirdly, we are also planning to develop potential local tourism products namely Paloh Village, Kuchai Village and areas located around Kinta River.

 

 

“Lastly, the government will persist in the preservation of the limestone hills covering 3,000 ha around the city area, and the Geopark vicinity,” she said.

Meanwhile, Rumaizi is now calling on the public to oppose or provide new ideas from November 15 until December 13 regarding the implementation of the draft on local planning and development of the Ipoh City until 2035.

 

 

He said that with an allocated area of 64,257 ha, the suggested development would focus on four main cores, 107 strategic/critical project and 254 programme and project focus on local sites.

“As for the Greater Ipoh Tourism Branding and Action Plan, it will include Ipoh City, Kuala Kangsar Municipality, Kampar District and Batu Gajah District.

 

 

“However, there are plans to transform Ipoh into a Hipster Tourism Hub; empowering Batu Gajah as a Healthy Lifestyle Tourism Hub; colonized Gopeng as Eco Adventure and revitalized Kuala Kangsar as a Royal Town,” he said.

A GREATER IPOH PLAN

 

IPOH: The Ipoh City Council (MBI) has plans to introduce the Greater Ipoh Tourism Region which covers Ipoh City, Kampar District, Batu Gajah District and Kuala Kangsar District.

Some of the attractions found in the Greater Ipoh include Kinta Geopark, Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar, Gopeng Eco-adventure, Batu Gajah Kellie’s Castle and Tanjung Tualang TT5 Dredge.

 

DATUK RUMAIZI (LEFT) EXCHANGING THE MOU WITH DR AMRAN HAMZAH

 

In order to kick off the Greater Ipoh plan, there was a signing of Memorandum of Understanding between three parties involved in the making of the Greater Ipoh,

They were MBI and Universiti Technology Malaysia/Uni-Technologies Sdn Bhd (Survey/Action Plan for Greater Ipoh); MBI and Urban Scale Studio Sdn Bhd (Survey on “Walkable City”); MBI and Pavilion Agro Farm (Construction of Pavilion Petting Zoo).

Professor Town Planner Dr Amran Hamzah representing UTM/Uni-Technologies, Datin Mazrina Abdul Khalid representing Urban Scale Studio and Mohd Shariff Yahya representing Pavilion Agro Farm.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Perak State Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Norlee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi.

 

DATUK RUMAIZI (LEFT) EXCHANGING MOU WITH DATIN MAZRINA ABDUL KHALID

 

Norlee said that the objectives of starting the action plan for having the Greater Ipoh aimed to re-evaluate strategies for developing the tourism industry, data collection on tourist arrival, improve the quality of local products, destination branding, marketing and promoting the tourism industry.

“The survey and planning will take about six months before the final report is released to us.

“There is a possibility of a rebound in terms of domestic tourism, after the drastic fall in the tourist arrival during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ipoh City is identified as an ‘emerging tourist destination’ with added ‘novelty factor’ of having unique mature tourist destinations whereby the City was selected as the sixth placing in the 10^th Best Asian Destinations to Visit 2016 by Lonely Planet due to its unique urban tourism and cultural heritage tourism in the country,” said Norlee.

 

DATUK RUMAIZI (LEFT) EXCHANGING MOU WITH MOHD SHARIFF YAHYA

 

Meanwhile, Datuk Bandar Datuk Rumaizi Baharin @ Md Daud said that Perak is the second state which achieved the highest domestic tourist arrival in 2018, and standing as the 11^th state for international and 10^th state for domestic tourist arrival in 2019.

“We still have to work harder in promoting the tourism products in Perak as it still lacks the ‘wow factor’ and insufficient depth of the tourist experience here.

“As such, we plan to improve the depth of the tourist experience via innovating our local products as well as making Ipoh City as a tourist destination ‘hub’ for the Greater Ipoh to be successful, in the future,” he said.