THE Sustainable PJ Association welcomes the recent announcement by Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari that the state government has decided to cancel the application of PJD Link to build a three-storey tolled elevated highway through the mature neighbourhoods of Petaling Jaya and Kinrara. The planned highway would have disrupted thousands of lives and livelihoods and passed close to homes, shops, places of worship, and schools. One portion even passed through a school.
While we take heart at the announcement of this cancellation, we would like to state that PJ is still at the mercy of such developments as the systems and structures that are required to ensure sustainable development in the city are still not in place.
The people have spent years and much time and effort writing letters, holding protests, meetings, and working tirelessly to highlight the detrimental impact of this highway, not just to individual lives, but to the prospect of PJ as a green city, served well by public transport. So much anxiety has been generated by this project and we strongly call on the government to commit to rejecting all future urban tolled elevated highways, passing through mature neighbourhoods. It is worrying that Amirudin stated that future proposals will still be considered if it can meet requirements. We are of the view that no mitigation will be sufficient to cancel the effects of a massive elevated highway outside your home and running through your built-up city.
We call on the federal and state governments to implement the following:
1. Practise transparency. Declassify the PJD Link Concession Agreement and all future highway concession agreements.
2. Publish impact assessments. Make public the traffic, environmental, and social impact assessments that have been conducted.
3. Public Transport Master Plan. Work together between states and agencies to develop a public transport master plan for Petaling Jaya that will address last-mile connectivity, and build systematically towards a walkable, cycleable, and sustainable city.
4. Ensure public consultation. Build public consultation into approval processes to ensure that public views are taken into account early and adequately.
5. No more PFIs. Never again should a massive development project that will affect thousands of lives and livelihoods be awarded privately without open tender. Residents should not have to compensate developers with their health, well-being. and homes.
As the concession agreement signed by the federal government and impact assessments have still not been disclosed to the public, the judicial review applications for these documents will continue and the public are still welcome to contribute to the society to support this effort and to ensure a sustainable PJ at saynotopjdlink.org. – The Vibes, August 1, 2023
Chakaravarthi Thillainathan is president of the Sustainable PJ Association
