Independent panel review on Kidex discovers highway encroaches on homes, hospitals

By admin-s On Jan 28, 2015

(MMO) – The proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) suffers from major shortcomings with regards to its planning process as well as its potential impact on residents, an independent review of the project has concluded.

MDS Traffic Planners and Consultants — an independent company commissioned by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to study developer Kidex Sdn Bhd’s technical reports and feasibility of the project — highlighted several concerns which should be addressed before the RM2.42 billion project is to be approved.

Chief of MDS’s concerns are the poor planning process on a structural level between the different government levels, a badly-executed social impact assessment (SIA), the issue of the highway encroaching homes and public buildings like schools and hospitals as well as possible adjustments to Kidex’s proposed alignment.

“Given that Malaysia is organised on a structure that consists of federal, state and local governments, the review is of the opinion that the three governmental levels should have been involved in the planning process from the start to the final decision making.

“This expressway is not part and parcel of the Selangor state plan and PJ local structure plan, the amendments in which requires public participation in the planning process,” said the report which was presented to Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) federal and state lawmakers as well as MBPJ councillors during a briefing yesterday.

A copy was made available to Malay Mail Online.

The report stated that issues such as local plan contents, alignment route as well, the supposed 13-metre set back proximity of the highway from buildings and residential objections could have been addressed and resolved much earlier if the Selangor government and MBPJ had been included prior to the submission of the proposal by Kidex Sdn Bhd.

“Instead, the project which was deemed to have been approved by the Cabinet, became a problem which was objected to and disproved by, namely PJ residents, the public at large, their councillors and doubted by state agencies such as the Selangor works departments,” the report added.

MDS also took issue with Kidex Sdn Bhd’s SIA study, pointing out that the developer failed to address objections and concerns put forth by residents who would be affected by the highway.

It said that the developer should have explained issues such as the planned acquisition of residential and industrial lots via the “13 metre set back rules” to affected parties more thoroughly and that many of them did not understand how the process was done.

“In fact, according to the report (SIA), less than two per cent of those who live less than 100 metres away from the alignment were interviewed by the staff of the consultancy company. And yet we know that 3,874 lots are within the 100 metre alignment (on both sides.)