KL-Putrajaya Highway, Government Project Gone Bad

The Government made some toll concession agreement public recently. As reported by The Star Online, the revelation of the agreements was announced way back in Oct 17, 2008. Unfortunately, they did not reveal the concession agreement for Maju Expressway (KL-Putrajaya Highway). Apparently, MEX did not want the agreement to be revealed.

We are very doubtful in the enforcement of the agreement between Maju and the Government. We believe certain terms and conditions were breached and this would have led to residents having to suffer more than expected. We believe that opening the Seri Petaling interchange is illegal! This is because during the project conceptualization, the KL-Putrajaya highway should have been a protocol highway all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya (Malaysia Government Administrative Center).

However during the construction, the Seri Petaling interchange was subsequently added to the highway despite the lack of available land. This has led to the construction of the roads leading to interchange to reach the backyard of some houses which was not in the initial plan.

What this means is that the residents living under the highway will now be subjected to more noise and dust pollution with safety risk increased due to the increase in traffic as a result of the interchange. The interchange certain serves to the benefit of the concession holder as there will be more toll to be collected but at the expense of the residents who are also the citizens of Malaysia, mind you!