REUTERS

Malaysia's King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Queen Nur Zahirah.

Kuala Lumpur - A massive new palace being built for Malaysia's king is expected to be completed next June, at a total cost of $258 million, parliament has been told.

The “Istana Negara”, or national palace, is taking shape on a hilltop in a Kuala Lumpur suburb and is an enormous complex of dome-topped buildings linked to the city's highways with special access roads.

The palace sprawls over a 100 000m2 site which was annexed in the 1990s and has since become a prime residential area.

Works Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor said that the palace is expected to be completed on June 30 next year, at a total cost of $258 million.

The figure has risen from an earlier allocation of $210 million, due to extra items including an upgraded security system, he said in a written reply issued on Monday to a query from the opposition.

Newspaper reports said the reply also specified that the project entails construction of a highway flyover and an access road.

Malaysia's opposition has criticised the government's decision to award the development contract without a tender, and said the company which will handle the construction is controlled by a senior figure in the ruling party.

The Star daily said the government had explained that there was no open tender because the special project was subject to security considerations.

Malaysia has a unique rotating monarchy shared among nine sultans, who are the royal rulers and guardians of Islam in their respective states. They each take turns to rule for five years as the nation's king.

The current king, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin from the northern state of Terengganu, was sworn in in 2006 at the age of 45, becoming Malaysia's second youngest monarch ever.

His current palace is a colonial mansion built in the 1920s which was originally the home of a self-made ethnic Chinese tycoon, and was later bought by the government. - Sapa-AFP