'No PJD Link!', PJ residents protest elevated highway project
Some 50 residents of Petaling Jaya held a peaceful demonstration early this morning to protest the Petaling Jaya Dispersal Elevated Highway (PJD Link) project.
The project was previously cancelled in 2015 but was approved in principle again by the government last month.
Speaking at the protest held on Jalan Prof Khoo Kay Kim was...
Some 50 residents of Petaling Jaya held a peaceful demonstration early this morning to protest the Petaling Jaya Dispersal Elevated Highway (PJD Link) project.
The project was previously cancelled in 2015 but was approved in principle again by the government last month.
Speaking at the protest held on Jalan Prof Khoo Kay Kim was PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong who alleged that an elevated highway would only do more harm than good.
“Elevated highways have their purpose, for example, interstate or rural areas where there are hilly regions, then there are good reasons to have elevated highways.
“But as an urban traffic dispersal system, it has failed, and for the last 30 years, cities that have had elevated highways have been tearing it down.
“Studies have shown that elevated highways have done more harm than good. For instance, what is the advantage of PJD Link? It is supposed to reduce congestion and cut the time taken from Damansara to Kinrara by 15 minutes.
“Is 15 minutes worth the harm that is being done to the environment, to the residents and the economy of Damansara, Petaling Jaya and Kinrara Puchong?” he questioned.
Also at the protest were Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, Sungai Pelek assemblyperson Ronnie Liu and Damansara MCA chairperson Tan Gim Tuan.
Remains a concern
It remains a concern that the proposed PJD Link highway is a revived version of the previously scrapped Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) highway project.
The Kidex expressway was intended to have been a 90 percent elevated expressway and was estimated to cost RM2.42 billion.
It commenced in 2013 but was shut down in 2015 soon after Azmin Ali replaced Khalid Ibrahim as the menteri besar.
PJD Link was among three new highways that were approved in May this year to address congestion around Klang Valley, with the other two being the Bangi-Putrajaya Expressway (BPE) and the Kuala Lumpur northern dispersal expressway (KL NODE).
Senior Works Minister Fadillah Yusof said the construction of these new highways would create alternative routes for road users and ease traffic congestion due to the increase in the number of vehicles.
Earlier this month, he announced that all three projects will not receive any allocations from the government and will have to be fully borne upon by concessionaires.
Speaking at a press conference after the protest, Maria alleged that Fadillah had no right to approve these highways without first presenting the social, economic and traffic assessment reports.
“Nothing has been presented (thus far). It was already rejected previously, there is no reason why such highways need to be brought back,” she told reporters.
She called on both the Selangor state government and the federal government to find other alternatives to ease traffic congestion.
“Other countries have shown that they have gone into public transport (such as) underground highways, buses and more walkways so we can have bicycles, motorcycles and so forth.
“There are so many alternatives that we can think about. Let us not put profit before lives,” she said.
