PARK goers are advised against visiting Taman Wawasan Recreational Park in Puchong in the evenings as the theft of cables and other electrical parts have made it dark and unsafe.
Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) Engineering Department deputy director Dr Mohd Ariffuddin Kamari said professionals were responsible for stealing the cables with losses estimated at over RM300,000.
“Losses include 400m of cables, two distribution boards housed in five feeder pillars, eight lanterns and one fan,” he said.
“We lodged a police report on June 9 and will be lodging an insurance claim for the losses.”
MBSJ councillor George Yap Kok Weng said Taman Wawasan Recreational Park, encompassing 8.9ha and the biggest park under MBSJ’s purview, had undergone massive upgrades in recent years.
“This was just a basic park prior to the Covid-19 pandemic but Kinrara assemblyman Ng Sze Han felt an upgrade was necessary to encourage more recreational activities,” said Yap.
“It underwent significant upgrades, including additional facilities totalling RM2mil over the past two years.
“These included roofing over the basketball courts, a dance floor at the gazebo and cemented pathways.”
Mohd Ariffuddin said upgrading works which were completed in January were funded by MBSJ and the state government.
“We will carry out an investigation and seal off affected feeder pillars for public safety purposes,” he said.
“This matter will be raised at MBSJ’s Infrastructure Committee meeting as we need to beef up security measures to deter incidents of theft in the future.”
Yap said he had raised the matter with Subang Jaya mayor Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yatim, who agreed to hire security guards to patrol the park as a temporary measure.
“The Information and Communications Technology committee meeting will look into the installation of five or six mobile CCTV units as a permanent solution,” said Yap.
“There is also a proposal to fence up the entire park, but that will require further considerations as it will be costly.”
Mohd Ariffuddin estimated that it would take about three months for the facilities to be restored due to an open tender process.
Puchong Basketball Association representative Benny Tio hoped MBSJ would undertake some temporary measures to ensure the park’s basketball courts are lit at night.
“The basketball courts are very popular and free for public use. There are also players from outside Puchong who come here to play, sometimes until 3am.
“The association also plays its part in helping to maintain the courts’ cleanliness,” said Tio.
“We hope for lights in at least one court to be restored so people can continue playing.”
A regular park user named Sue supported the idea of having it fenced up for public safety.
“I’m here almost every day around 6am and I have friends who come here as early as 5am. We prefer coming early in the morning when it is not so hot,” she said.
Since Taman Wawasan Recreational Park is lacking lights, Yap advised the public not to visit outside daylight hours until the electricity supply is restored.
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