A PILOT project to address stormwater management and flooding is being considered for Kwasa Damansara.
Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) Development Planning Department director Lee Lih Shyan said it was in discussions with the master developer to implement a sponge city concept in the township.
“It will simultaneously tackle elements of water storage, water usage and pollution.
“It will also incorporate the smart city concept and carbon-emission performance-based evaluation,” he said.
A sponge city is an urban design model where the ground and infrastructure are built to “absorb” and filter rainwater –much like a sponge.
Kwasa Damansara is a vast mixed-use township development, spanning close to 931ha that borders Kota Damansara and Sungai Buloh in Selangor.
Lih Shyan was speaking on the sidelines of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between MBPJ and the Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP), at a hotel in Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.
The MOU aims to strengthen strategic collaboration to improve the quality of urban planning practices and strengthen the role of town planning professionals as strategic leaders in urban management.
Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Zahri Samingon along with deputy mayor Aznan Hassan inked the MOU along with MIP president Mazrina Abdul Khalid and vice-president Abdul Hamid Akub.
Separately, Lih Shyan said the Petaling Jaya Local Plan (RTPJ) 2035 (Replacement) draft will be guided by the city’s new transportation master plan.
“The Petaling Jaya Urban Transportation Master Plan (PIP) 2.0 will serve as the main guideline for public transport- and traffic management-related matters for the draft RTPJ,” he said.
PIP 2.0, which was launched in December 2025, focused on seven action plans, including public transport, traffic management and micromobility infrastructure, he said.
Lih Shyan added that a briefing on PIP 2.0 was held for Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung, Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran and representatives of the PJ Sejahtera residents’ associations coalition on March 13.
Chean Chung had earlier this month expressed concerns about the conversion of residential land to commercial use under the draft RTPJ and the capacity of the city’s existing infrastructure to cope with high-density projects.
