KUALA LUMPUR: A residents' association has raised concerns over the alleged revival of the proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) elevated highway project.
Stakeholders cum Residents Against PJD Link (ScRAP) Highway chairman David Yoong said the group had received confirmation that the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) had met with the developer of the highway project where approval was given to submit impact assessment (SIA) reports.
"We have confirmed that MTES met with PJDLink on Jan 10 and has given the latter approval to submit impact assessment reports to the menteri besar and state executive committee in the next two weeks," he said.
Young said this contradicts the project's cancellation announced by Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari on July 31 last year, where one of the revival conditions is appeasement of the people.
"This went against the conditions as survey results by the developer's consultant and the People's Independent Survey have shown that Petaling Jaya and Kinrara are firmly and steadfastly against the highway.
"The Focused Group Discussions run by the SIA consultant engaged by the developer showed 27 out of 31 groups object to the highway, while the People's Independent Survey, endorsed by 17 residents' associations, non-governmental organisations and former Petaling Jaya member of parliament Maria Chin Abdullah, showed 93.6 per cent of the 2,501 respondents are in strong objection against the highway."
He also said that the people of Petaling Jaya and Kinrara's demands following the menteri besar's back-pedalling announcement last year that the highway project may be revived went unanswered.
"In August last year, through a lawyer, demands made to the state to give a firm commitment not to entertain or consider any highway similar alignment to Kidex or PJD Link; the declassification of the PJD Link concession agreement from Official Secrets Act; public disclosure of the SIA, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) reports, and for the state government to disclose its requirements for the greenlight of a highway in Petaling Jaya received no response from the menteri besar till today.
Therefore, Yoong calls for the menteri besar to uphold his pledges that the highway project will not be revived as announced and to shed light on the recent events that transpired during the MTES and PJD Link recently.
Last year, Amirudin announced the cancellation of the proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) elevated highway project.
The project, which was estimated to cost more than RM2 billion, was approved in April 2022 by the previous federal government helmed by former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Amirudin, before the cancellation, said the project had only been given conditional approval.
He had said that should it fail to meet requirements, it would share the same fate as the proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), which was shelved in 2015.
The 14.9-kilometre expressway was supposed to connect the Damansara–NKVE interchange of the New Klang Valley Expressway to Bandar Kinrara and aimed to reduce the travelling time between Damansara and Kinrara by some 25 per cent.