KUALA TERENGGANU: Efforts are underway to revive the abandoned RM400mil Knowledge Park in Besut, assured Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman.
Razif said that the state government is in talks with the Education Ministry to restore the facility and not let it become a white elephant.
“We are sorting out the details to have the project revived so that it will not go to waste.
“Hopefully, we can get it going again by October,” he said.
The Knowledge Park was originally slated for completion in 2008 but various factors soon halted the project.
Said to be halfway through, the park lies abandoned on a 280-hectare site in the seaside village of Tembila, about 15km away from Besut.
It is learnt that former Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, who is now Education Minister II and Besut MP, is involved in efforts to revive the project, aimed at transforming Besut into an educational centre of excellence.
The project came to a halt after Idris’ successor and political rival Datuk Seri Ahmad Said took over administration of Terengganu as the Menteri Besar after the 2008 general election.
It was reported that out of seven originally planned complexes, only two appeared completed, with a mosque occupying the land in Parcel A and a library in Parcel B.
Work on the park started in the middle of 2007, about three years after Idris succeeded in wresting back Terengganu from a short-lived PAS rule.
The Knowledge Park was meant to be an education hub with six institutions of higher learning led by the flagship Universiti Darul Iman (UDM). The institutions were supposed to share the park’s facilities.
UDM has since been renamed Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) and it is now operating in Gong Badak. It is unclear if Knowledge Park will house its Besut campus.