KL-Putrajaya Highway, Government Project Gone Bad

Tan Sri Mohd Sidek

First of all, we would like to thank Tan Sri Mohd Sidek who had acted on our email sent on 28 May 2009 swiftly. He requested Kementerian Kerja Raya and its associated agencies to reply to our email.  Tan Sri sent the email out on June 11 2009 and subsequently we received a reply from Ketua Pengarah of LLM, Dato’ Ir. Hj. Ismail bin Md. Salleh, on June 12.

According to a key paragraph of the reply, the Government is studying our request to take over the houses affected by the highway but it involves high cost and will take some time to conclude.

In LLM’s reply to address our current concern, the points to note are;

1. The developer is still in the process of fixing all the houses damaged by the construction for the cooperative residents

2. Noise pollution readings taken in April 2008 last year indicates that the noise level is below the requirement of Jabatan Alam Sekitar and in fact it is now lower than before the highway was constructed.

3. If the concern of safety is still there, the authorities will raise the parapet wall above the highway to 1.8m (6 feet)

From the looks of the reply, it it seems Dato’ Ir. Hj. Ismail bin Md. Salleh has not been given the correct update, and is probably too busy to investigate the facts. The reply clearly demonstrated that the department which is handling the project implementation is giving a standard and outdated answer without much understanding and concern on the whole matter.

Let us analyse the reply.

a. “LLM claims that to take over the houses would be very costly and therefore need to study the proposal carefully”.  First of all, the current issues arise as a result of the Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia’s blunder. The residents shouldn’t be put to unnecessary suffering any further and the agency should proactively seek engagement with the affected residents to find ways to solve the current issue.  As of our record, LLM has been ignoring us since Apr 2008 last year.

b. “The developer is still in the process of fixing the houses damaged by the construction for the cooperative residents”. The process is taking too long a time to complete and presently there has not been any updates to the residents so far. Imagine, the highway has been completed and launched but some of the houses issues have not been resolved. We question LLM’s commitment to resolve the issue.

c. “Noise pollution readings taken in April 2008 last year indicates that the noise level is below the requirement of Jabatan Alam Sekitar and in fact it is now lower than before the highway was constructed”. This is the most absurd point of them all. Even a ten year old will be able to tell you that when you build a concrete structure above your roof, the noise would have no place to disperse and the echo effect would be increased thereby making it louder. How can it be lower than before the highway is built? Does that mean the residents should thank LLM for putting the highway above our houses? Clearly, such a reply would not come from a Ketua Pengarah!

d. “If the concern of safety is still there, the authorities will raise the parapet wall above the highway to 1.8m (6 feet)”. The parapet wall of 1.8m in height was promised by the Minister of Works and should be done immediately.

Here is the email reply. (Some of the personal contact information has been removed)

Date: Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Subject: RE: KL-Putrajaya Highway - Unresolved issues in Sri Petaling Read the rest of this entry »