Posted on 3 February 2016 - 01:48pm
Last updated on 3 February 2016 - 03:36pm
Lee Hooi Boonnewsdesk@thesundaily.com
BUTTERWORTH: A 86-year-old woman is happy she can finally celebrate Chinese New Year at her new home this year after staying in a cramped six-metre-long shipping container for 18 years.
Lai Kim Sok can now invite all her children and grandchildren to her new unit at Bayu Aman Flat for the festive season.
Lai was one of 37 families who had to live in cramped shipping container houses.
"I was relieved when I was told I can move into this flat in June, last year, because all my 13 family members do not need to cramp together in the container house again.
"Due to the tiny space and bad living condition at the container house, a lot of family problems occurred during those 18 years.
"But all these problems have been solved after moving here," she told reporters at her flat at Teluk Air Tawar here.
Also present was Penang chief minister's political secretary, Wong Hon Wai, who handed Chinese tangerines to Lai, who moved into the flat last August.
In 1998, a developer wanted to redevelop Kampung Air Tawar and compensated Lai and another 36 families with low-cost flats costing RM42,000 each.
The developer then housed them, comprising 150 people, in shipping container houses, as transit homes, while their flats were being built but the developer ran out of money during the 1997-1998 economic crisis.
Under pressure from the DAP-led state government, the seven-storey flat project, consisting of 138 units, was restarted in 2011 after it was taken over by a new developer.
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1684663
BUTTERWORTH: A 86-year-old woman is happy she can finally celebrate Chinese New Year at her new home this year after staying in a cramped six-metre-long shipping container for 18 years.
Lai Kim Sok can now invite all her children and grandchildren to her new unit at Bayu Aman Flat for the festive season.
Lai was one of 37 families who had to live in cramped shipping container houses.
"I was relieved when I was told I can move into this flat in June, last year, because all my 13 family members do not need to cramp together in the container house again.
"Due to the tiny space and bad living condition at the container house, a lot of family problems occurred during those 18 years.
"But all these problems have been solved after moving here," she told reporters at her flat at Teluk Air Tawar here.
Also present was Penang chief minister's political secretary, Wong Hon Wai, who handed Chinese tangerines to Lai, who moved into the flat last August.
In 1998, a developer wanted to redevelop Kampung Air Tawar and compensated Lai and another 36 families with low-cost flats costing RM42,000 each.
The developer then housed them, comprising 150 people, in shipping container houses, as transit homes, while their flats were being built but the developer ran out of money during the 1997-1998 economic crisis.
Under pressure from the DAP-led state government, the seven-storey flat project, consisting of 138 units, was restarted in 2011 after it was taken over by a new developer.
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1684663
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