Selangor residents readying to stop another contentious highway

By admin-s On Aug 7, 2014

(TMI) – A group of Petaling Jaya residents are gearing up again to stop the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (Dash) project once draft amendments to the PJ Local Plan 1 and 2 are put up for public display from today.

Petaling Jaya local councillors and residents involved in the Say-No-to-Dash campaign said the legal consultation process, which will determine whether the project will be given the final green light, is expected to start this week.

Drafts of the amendments, which include the proposed Dash project, will be made public today (August 7) at the PJ City Council offices.

But, some councillors are challenging the legality of those drafts. They said the PJ mayor did not follow procedures in the preparation of the drafts.

How the impending clash between residents, the Selangor local authorities and the private company building Dash is resolved could impact a controversial Putrajaya-approved master plan to build five other tolled highways in the Klang Valley.

It is also an important political litmus test for Selangor Pakatan Rakyat as it undergoes a credibility crisis with some of the voters who gave it a second term.

Besides Dash, the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (Suke), Eastern Klang Valley Expressway (Ekve) and Kinrara-Damansara Elevated Expressway (Kidex), have already attracted stiff opposition from residents and civil society groups.

Local councillor Lee Suet Sen confirmed that the Dash project is one of the amendments to the local plan.

“There were studies done by the previous local council (before the 2013 term) on the highway project and there was enough information and feedback to include it as an amendment to the plan,” Suet said when contacted.

In comparison, the equally controversial Kidex has not been included as an amendment.

If a project is not in the local plan, it cannot be built. For it to go ahead, the local plan must be amended by the council to include the project.

Joanne Ting, who is part of the anti-Dash group, said its members had been told that the highway project will be one of the amendments to the local plan.

“We don’t know what is in the plan yet but we were told to look into the draft,” she said.

The group first mounted protests against the project in 2012, after which not much was heard about the project from the developer or the state government until now.

The group wants Selangor to change the original alignment of the highway so that it does not cut through the residential areas of Damansara Perdana, Kota Damansara and Mutiara Damansara.

Residents worry about the pollution coming from the construction of the highway and the noise it generates once it is completed.