Kidex application still on despite PJ official’s statement, says developer

The developer for the controversial Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) insists that its application to build the project is still on despite claims that it has been rejected by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

The developer, Kidex Sdn Bhd (KSB), also refuted claims made by an independent consultant that its project was not beneficial to Petaling Jaya. It claimed that the MDS Traffic Planners and Consultants report was “biased” and “misleading”.

KSB chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Nor Idrus said the company had not received any official word from MBPJ that the application for the project had been rejected.

“KSB has also expressed surprise that the alleged decision by MBPJ is being made to the press not by an official spokesperson.

“Normally an official spokesperson for MBPJ would be making an announcement of a matter of such seriousness and we have not been informed whether the statement is an official communique by MBPJ.

“Kidex, meanwhile, shall at all times follow the requirements of the law and will pursue the necessary submissions as may be required for the inclusion of the highway in the local plan,” Mohd Nor said in a statement.

The company was responding to a Malaysian Insider report on January 30 quoting MBPJ councillor Lee Suet Sen, who said that the local authority had decided not to include the project in the draft of the PJ local plan.

The plan is a blueprint for all future infrastructure projects in a municipality. Projects that are not in the local plan cannot be built.

The MBPJ's decision is tantamount to the local authority not giving the developer approval for the project in its current form.

The council had based this decision on an independent analysis of the project by MDS which found that Kidex held very little benefit for the city, Lee said.

However, MBPJ’s decision can still be overturned by the Selangor government. Under the Town and Country Planning Act, the state can still compel the local authority to review its stand and re-insert the project into the local plan.

The 14.9km expressway is supposed to connect Kinrara in the Southern part of the Klang Valley to Bandar Utama in the north and bypass Petaling Jaya. Its supporters claim that it will cut down travel time between those areas by 25%.

But, it has faced stiff resistance from residents who believe it will worsen congestion and pollute their neighbourhoods.

The MDS study released on January 28 pointed out several problems with the highway’s current alignment which currently has it cutting through some of the densest areas in the Klang valley.

The MDS study claimed that the developer had inflated future traffic volumes on key roads in order to justify the highway.

MDS also claimed that the developer’s social impact assessment (SIA) of the project was poorly done and that the company had failed to respond to residents’ concerns.

In his statement today, Kidex’s Mohd Nor refuted MDS’s findings, and insisted that the project was good for PJ.

“Kidex and LLM (Malaysian Highway Authority) have together submitted rebuttals to the analysis by MDS, which we believe is flawed and biased, hence misleading.

“Kidex continues to maintain its stand that the highway provides substantial communal benefits to residents of Petaling Jaya,” said Mohd Nor.

He also claimed that MDS was not a traffic study specialist, while the traffic consultants KSB had hired, Jakob SKM and Runding Trafik MZK Sdn Bhd, were some of the best in the industry.

Jakob SKM is the world’s largest and renowned traffic consultant with several decades of experience, Mohd Nor said. While Runding Trafik MZK has done traffic studies in Malaysia for the past 15 years and worked on more than 10 major highways.

“It is clearly evidenced that MDS relied on the Kidex report to draw its conclusions and not through any independent studies as this was only a review of the Traffic Impact Assessment submitted by KSB to MBPJ.

“The MDS report has preferred to choose what it feels is required to provide a report whilst ignoring vital facts,” Mohd Nor said. – January 31, 2015.