Selangor government shows true colours on ‘shady’ Kidex deal
The Selangor government has come under heavy scrutiny by Petaling Jaya residents over the ‘shady’ Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) deal.
‘Say No to Kidex’ chairman Dr Mohan Mahatheva (pic), at a briefing with SS20 residents here, claimed they never had the privilege on public consultation, despite being promised so by the state lawmakers.
“We believed when we voted for them, they wouldn’t do the things that they accused BN of.
“Now we have discovered otherwise,” he said on Sunday.
He also lamented the lack of transparency and accountability on the proposed project by the Federal Government, which has been given a go-ahead by the state government last July.
“When the Federal Government gave the contract, they needed an approval to acquire the plots of land and the state government did just that by publishing a gazette.
“We were not aware of all this. All of the state assemblymen denied knowledge even though the state government has allowed acquisition of private properties and government land,” he said.
Committee secretary David Yoong also accused the state government of “putting the cart before the horse”, when it promised to provide adequate public consultation after publishing the gazette.
The semi-retired engineer also claimed that the state lawmakers and authorities are withholding information from the people and broke their election promise.
“In their election manifesto, they said they would take over highways in stages in order for them to abolish tolls.
“Now they approved a tolled highway to go through,” he said.
Committee member Mak Khuin Weng also echoed their sentiment, saying, “If Pakatan were better, they wouldn’t be doing secret deals behind people’s backs”.
Kidex is RM2.24bil, 14.9km elevated superhighway or skyway, which could reach six to eight storeys high and aims to reduce travelling time by 25 percent between Damansara and Kinrara.
It links the New Klang Valley Expressway’s (NKVE) Damansara toll exit to Bandar Kinrara, terminating after the Bukit Jalil Highway in Puchong.
The construction will affect familiar landmarks such as Tropicana Mall, SS2 Mall, the Rothman’s T-junction, Section 14, Amcorp Mall, Hilton Petaling Jaya, Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital, the Jalan Templer roundabout, Taman Datuk Harun, Taman Medan Baru and Bandar Kinrara.
The construction is expected to start as early next year and completed by 2018.
In result of this, all ownership transactions involving homes and properties within the project corridor have been frozen.
Apart from noise pollution and dust pollution and other hazards that come with the project, the residents also claimed that several structures of the highway would be located less than 13m away from schools and residential area.
The committee is now mulling a judicial review as a last resort, but the affected residents would first to hold peaceful demonstration to get the project shelved.
They have also invited Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, the state executive council members and elected representatives to a dialogue with residents to shed light on the project on May 9 at Section 4 Rukun Tetangga beat-base.
