The increasing number of towering partially completed structures in the State are not only an eyesore but have also become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

 Locals and tourists have begun to complain about the projects with protruding steel bars and half finished concrete work where rats, mosquitoes and flies are in abundance.

Restaurant owner in Melaka Raya, Lim Siew Bee, 48, whose shop is next to a 21-storey building project that has been abandoned said: "It’s a sorry sight and gives our town a bad image. I feel shy when tourists ask me about it."

The project has been left uncompleted for nearly a decade.

Normand Laurin and Ursula Oberli from Quebec, Canada said the unsightly buildings paint a bad picture of the historical city.
"The first time I set foot here, I actually felt like I was in a war-torn nation. The abandoned projects look like they have been damaged by fire or bombs. Is this country too poor to salvage or develop these buildings?," asked Oberli, who has been living in a guesthouse in Melaka Raya for the past four months.

The guesthouse overlooks a multi-storey abandoned building.

The couple was also puzzled as to why new buildings were being built while old ones are abandoned or left unoccupied.

Architect Tony Khoo of Arkitek KHP, whose company designed four buildings that have since been abandoned said the owners or developers faced financial constraints after the Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s and left the job uncompleted.

"There is nothing we can do because we’ve also been left in the lurch," he said when contacted.

Mayor Datuk Zaini Md Nor said his council was constantly pursuing the relevant parties to complete the projects, but because most of them were private initiatives, his hands were tied.

"We can tell them to please get it done, get new investors, or sell the property, but it is up to them what they choose to do.

"We are also worried that these places are turning into Aedes breeding grounds, but we can’t enter the premises."

He added that it would take time for the council to sit down with the project owners to solve the problem.

"We also understand that some of these owners’ companies have gone into receivership. Some are facing other legal problems. That’s why they can’t do much."