A group of Petaling Jaya residents are gearing up again to stop the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (Dash) project once draft amendments to the PJ Local Plan 1 and 2 are put up for public display from today.
Petaling Jaya local councillors and residents involved in the Say-No-to-Dash campaign said the legal consultation process, which will determine whether the project will be given the final green light, is expected to start this week.
Drafts of the amendments, which include the proposed Dash project, will be made public today (August 7) at the PJ City Council offices.
But, some councillors are challenging the legality of those drafts. They said the PJ mayor did not follow procedures in the preparation of the drafts.
How the impending clash between residents, the Selangor local authorities and the private company building Dash is resolved could impact a controversial Putrajaya-approved master plan to build five other tolled highways in the Klang Valley.
It is also an important political litmus test for Selangor Pakatan Rakyat as it undergoes a credibility crisis with some of the voters who gave it a second term.
Besides Dash, the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (Suke), Eastern Klang Valley Expressway (Ekve) and Kinrara-Damansara Elevated Expressway (Kidex), have already attracted stiff opposition from residents and civil society groups.
Local councillor Lee Suet Sen confirmed that the Dash project is one of the amendments to the local plan.
“There were studies done by the previous local council (before the 2013 term) on the highway project and there was enough information and feedback to include it as an amendment to the plan,” Suet said when contacted.
In comparison, the equally controversial Kidex has not been included as an amendment.
If a project is not in the local plan, it cannot be built. For it to go ahead, the local plan must be amended by the council to include the project.
Joanne Ting, who is part of the anti-Dash group, said its members had been told that the highway project will be one of the amendments to the local plan.
“We don’t know what is in the plan yet but we were told to look into the draft,” she said.
The group first mounted protests against the project in 2012, after which not much was heard about the project from the developer or the state government until now.
The group wants Selangor to change the original alignment of the highway so that it does not cut through the residential areas of Damansara Perdana, Kota Damansara and Mutiara Damansara.
Residents worry about the pollution coming from the construction of the highway and the noise it generates once it is completed.
In an April 2012 Selangor Times report, about 400 residents mounted a protest to pressure the Selangor government and developer to change the highway’s alignment.
The six-lane, elevated highway highway’s original alignment would see it squeezed in between houses and shop lots as it winds through those neighbourhoods.
The 20km highway is being built by Projek Lintasan Kota Sdn Bhd (Prolintas) and is supposed to start from Puncak Alam in Shah Alam and end at the Sprint and Damansara-Puchong Highways (LDP).
Among areas that will benefit from Dash are Alam Suria, Denai Alam, Subang Perdana, as well as future townships planned on the Rubber Research Institute Malaysia (RRIM) land in Sungai Buloh.
Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, whose constituency the project runs through, said the consultation process would allow residents to officially state their objections to the project and why it should be changed.
“It will then be up to the state planning authority to take this feedback into consideration if the project is to go through.”
Suet, the MBPJ councillor, said if residents can give enough reasons to back their objections about the project, it could possibly be yanked from being included into this round of amendments to the local plan.
“If public response is reasonable and makes sense, the project can still be pulled out.” – August 7, 2014.
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