YESTERDAY: Putrajaya, come clean on Kidex, reassess highway

‘Local council not given the details’

Let’s turn to the local authority – another level of governance which is directly under the jurisdiction of the Selangor government. My colleague, Lee Suet Sen, an MBPJ councillor who is also a member of the One-Stop Centre (OSC), issued a press statement on May 7, 2014, which I reproduce:

“I am referring to the claim by Kidex Sdn Bhd’s chief executive officer Mohd Nor Idrus in theSun yesterday that all relevant information on the proposed highway has been provided to the technical team of the MBPJ engineering department. 

Director of Engineering for MBPJ Ismail Shafie and Assistant Director of Engineering, Hanizah Katab have confirmed that MBPJ has yet to receive any Detailed Alignment and Traffic Impact Study from Kidex Sdn Bhd till today.

“I would like to take this opportunity to let Mohd Nor understand that by presenting the concept in PowerPoint format is not good enough for MBPJ to look into the proposal.

“Detailed alignment means MBPJ needs to know the exact location of the highway, the exact width of it, the exact height of it, the exact set back from it from buildings, the exact locations of ramps in/out, etc.

"Traffic Impact Study is whether the Level of Service (LOS) on PJ local roads will be improved from LOS of D to C or B, the improvement of waiting time for vehicles at junctions, especially ramps in/out, the impact on the one-way traffic loop at Jalan Utara/ Timur/Barat, etc.

“I want to stress that MBPJ, as a local council, is unable to process any application for zoning exercise of amendments in local plans (RTPJ1/ RTPJ2/ RKK13) when relevant information like detailed alignment and TIA are not available.

"A local plan is not any ordinary plan as it involves the definition of land usage at the particular place in Petaling Jaya. MBPJ has to be convinced that the proposal of Kidex Sdn Bhd is to the benefit of development in Petaling Jaya.”

What Lee Suet Sen said in this statement is very clear, that although KSB has got the initial approvals from various government departments to build the highway, it is expected to conduct a detailed engineering design and submit the application with these documents to the local authority and other technical authorities for further approvals.

MBPJ will not be giving Kidex any approval without these submissions.

In fact, the reasons why the Selangor government  gave KSB an “in-principle agreement” in the first place is to allow it to proceed with detailed engineering design works, which are important for KSB to apply for approvals from the local authority and other technical departments.

Unfortunately, what KSB had presented to the local council are just some PowerPoint slides, which are grossly insufficient for the council to work on.

My colleague in the Selangor exco, Teng Chang Khim ( left ), who is in charge of the local government portfolio, agrees with this statement and I believe that the Selangor Land Office and the state government will not be able to process any application further on if these are what they had done so far.

Another aspect that many of us have been missing is the role played by the federal government in this issue. In pressing for more information, MHA and KKR are completely missing from the radar screen, even though they are actually the custodians of the project.

Kidex is just a concession company answerable to MHA and KKR. Even its CEO has stated that they have submitted all their documents to MHA and KKR and they can only release these documents for public viewing with their approvals.

Highways no solution to congestion

What I can conclude from here is that we are having two different sets of working cultures. One is the bureaucratic and OSA-oriented working culture on the part of the federal government and the other one is the open and ready-to-explain working culture on the part of MBPJ and the state government.

Where should we go from here? This, in my opinion, is the crux of the issue.

I personally do not believe the idea that building more highways will solve the traffic congestion on other highways. This simplistic approach has been proven wrong, time and again.

KSB said Kidex will alleviate traffic congestion on the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP). Is it not true that the federal government built LDP and the Sprint Expressway to alleviate traffic congestion in Petaling Jaya? And now, we need to build Kidex to relieve traffic congestions along LDP and Sprint?

When traffic congestions start building up along Kidex, years or decades later, are we going to build another highway?

What we need is a more comprehensive public transport network and an aggressive campaign to reduce private vehicles on the road. My colleague and I believe that the current proposed alignment is a good corridor for a public transport line, not a highway.

The current alignment for Kidex, if made into a public transport line - whether a mass rapid transit (MRT), light rapid transit (LRT) or bus rapid transit (BRT), will be able to provide greater connectivity to the current public transport network, with possible interchanges with MRT Line 1, LRT Kelana Jaya Line, LRT Ampang Line and KTM Komuter.

Putrajaya must prove worth

We argue that taking up the airspace for the construction of the Kidex will deny the people of Petaling Jaya and Puchong a future public transport link along this particular corridor. This is a spatial opportunity cost lost.

We strongly believe that the federal government must prove to the people of Petaling Jaya and Puchong, who are the biggest stakeholders of the project, that the highway project will indeed benefit them more than a public transport project.

The federal government must do some comparative studies between a highway and public transport line along this particular corridor. Kidex should also study other alternative alignments.

If a highway with the proposed alignment is found to be best option for Klang Valley traffic, then we hope KSB can provide a more convincing traffic impact assessment with facts and figures to justify that. At the moment, we have yet to receive any traffic impact assessment from KSB, despite making several requests.

We acknowledge the need for more highways for traffic dispersal as Petaling Jaya and the Klang Valley grow and develop. However, this should not be done in an ad-hoc manner, as with the planning for Kidex, but through holistic planning for the Klang Valley road infrastructure, for example, a Klang Valley traffic master plan.

Only with a holistic traffic master plan will we know which locations in the Klang Valley are best for what transport mode and only with that can the region be developed in a more sustainable manner and realise the full potentials of the land value.

YESTERDAY: Putrajaya must come clean on Kidex, reassess highway

LAU WENG SAN is the assemblyperson for Kampung Tunku, Selangor.