KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has begun a six-month study to determine whether Bangsar’s roads, utilities and other infrastructure can support its approved projects and future development.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Fadlun Mak Ujud said this during a town hall session in Bangsar after residents raised concerns about rapid development and its cumulative impact on their neighbourhoods.
The complaints included worsening traffic, flash floods and growing pressure on roads, water supply, electricity and other infrastructure.
Fadlun said the study would be Kuala Lumpur’s first to assess the combined impact of multiple developments, instead of examining each project separately.
“We need to reassess whether the existing infrastructure is sufficient to accommodate rapid development in this area,” he said.
Fadlun said that DBKL currently assessed each development application individually, including its traffic impact assessment, and acknowledged that this piecemeal method does not work.
He said a consultant appointed in early August has started collecting information for the study.
DBKL is set to map developments that had been approved or committed, together with their plot ratios and gross floor areas.
The assessment will also consider future developments permitted under the Kuala Lumpur Local Plan 2040 (KLLP2040).
“Artificial intelligence will be used to analyse the information and project the effects of future development,” Fadlun said.
He said DBKL would create a virtual 3D model of Bangsar showing all approved and potential developments.
The model would estimate how the projects, taken together, could affect traffic, roads, water supply, electricity and telecommunications.
It would also model what could happen if development proceeded without improvements to the surrounding area.
Fadlun said this would help DBKL determine whether roads had to be widened, alternative routes constructed or utilities upgraded.
“The relevant agencies would then first have to improve infrastructure found to be inadequate.
“DBKL could also reduce the permitted density of future projects, if the necessary improvements cannot be carried out.”
Fadlun added that public consultation would be conducted in stages during the study and announced through social media, where residents can examine the findings and submit their views.
The need for a combined assessment was raised during the town hall by a resident concerned about a proposed development at Jalan Bukit Pantai.
The resident said another project had been proposed about 100m away and questioned whether separate assessments could adequately measure their combined effect on local roads and utilities.
Other residents raised concerns about congestion in Lucky Garden, development around Jalan Abdullah and Federal Hill, flash floods and increasing pressure on residential roads.
In response, Fadlun said developers could be required to improve surrounding roads before starting construction and restore damage caused during the work.
On another issue, he said owners of existing two-storey houses seeking to add a third storey would now have to obtain their neighbours’ consent.
This followed a complaint from a Lucky Garden resident who said part of a neighbouring house undergoing renovation had fallen onto her property.
Fadlun instructed DBKL officers to inspect her property, conduct a dilapidation survey and issue a stop-work order to the neighbour until the damage was rectified.
Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil, who is also Lembah Pantai MP, said similar sessions should be held monthly with the involvement of residents’ associations.
The town hall session at Bukit Bandaraya Community Centre in Jalan Medang Tanduk, Bangsar, was organised by the Federal Territories Residents’ Representative Council (MPPWP) Lembah Pantai Subzone 2.
