Speed up building of expressway

Completion of the Banting-Klang stretch of WCE will enable more traffic to be dispersed and ease congestion in the area. - Filepic

THE residents of Banting town and the surrounding Kuala Langat district are hoping that construction work on the 233km West Coast Expressway (WCE) between Klang and Banting will be expedited as the traffic jam on the narrow Banting-Dengkil stretch is worsening.

The opening of the expressway will very much ease the congestion that motorists face daily.

A couple of years ago, there was hectic construction activity at the Jalan Banting-Jalan Dengkil terminus of the WCE with earthworks, the building of ramps and a bridge.

However, there is hardly any construction activity now as the highway concessionaire is possibly concentrating on other sections of the expressway.

Some stretches of the WCE have been opened to traffic over the last two years.

The Banting-Klang stretch of WCE will enable more traffic to be dispersed and ease congestion when completed, and also bring more revenue for the concessionaire.

More emphasis needs to be given to completing this stretch as Banting and the surrounding areas will experience a boost in industrial, commercial and residential development.

Even though the time frame given for the completion of the expressway is by the end of 2024, some sections can be built faster to ease congestion since the Covid-19 pandemic is now under control and the freeze on the intake of foreign workers has been lifted.

A lot of large-scale developments are awaiting completion of the expressway.

The Kuala Langat Public Works Department (JKR) needs to widen the Banting-Dengkil and the Banting-Olak Lempit-Lebuhan Dagang-KLIA stretches in tandem with the WCE and not wait a few years before doing so. These stretches are becoming unsafe and accident-prone at some sections where schools and villages are situated.

JKR also needs to ensure that all the streetlights in its jurisdiction light up, as long stretches of roads are unlit at night, making it dangerous for motorists.

Tourist attractions such as Morib beach and the Morib Gold Coast Resort get a lot of foreigners and locals, and faulty streetlights along long stretches of the various roads dent the image of Selangor as a developed state.

GEORGE THOMAS

Banting, Selangor