Residents say no to extension

PUTRA Heights and Subang Alam residents are dead against the proposed LRT extension routes in their townships.

A total of 1,155 feedback forms were submitted on behalf of the residents by the Subang Alam/Putra Heights LRT Task Force to the Department of Railways (DoR) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Prem Kaur, who is also the Putra Heights Section 2/3 Residents Association president, said the residents preferred the proposed route drawn up by the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) to the one proposed by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana).

The former runs through the Hicom industrial area and Taman Alam Megah and ends with a station in Putra Heights while the latter has three stops along Jalan Persiaran Putra in Putra Heights.

The residents’ rationale in opposing to the latter is that it runs along a 5kV power line and that they bought their houses without prior knowledge on the LRT extension.

“When we moved in seven years ago, we were fully aware that there was no public transportation here.

“We enjoy the low density and the quiet,” Prem said.

Subang Alam Residents Association president Ikmal Hisham Abdul Ghani pointed out that the MBSA’s proposed route would run through industrial and commercial areas, thus benefitting more people than in Putra Heights.

“The profile of Putra Heights residents are medium class and above, and most have their own means of transport,” he said.

Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit (Transit) adviser Moaz Yusof Ahmad, on the other hand, recommended that the DoR and Transport Minister reject the proposed routes until Prasarana conducted thorough studies that justified the scheme and the anticipated construction and operations costs.

“It appears that no economic feasibility study and public transport planning study have been conducted before choosing the 35km extension routes,” Moaz said.

In its 80-page report, Transit put forward its view that the proposed routes did not meet the public’s expectations on various aspects, including competency, consistency, connectivity and efficiency.

“The proposed routes are different from the ones in the Selangor State Structural Plan 2006 and both the state and federal governments should work together on this matter.

“The use of land comes under the state’s jurisdiction, although transport is a federal matter,” he said.

Transit also recommended that a new Urban Mass-Transit Act be introduced.

“The Railways Act 1991 treats all railways the same while there are more issues to be addressed when dealing with an urban railway, including parking, noise, construction and costs,” he added.

Moaz insisted that the route should be well planned to avoid irreversible mistakes in the extension that was estimated to cost RM7bil.

“For instance, the stations may pose parking problems, like in Petaling Jaya, if the extension is poorly planned,” he said.

He urged the DoR to take a month to study the public’s feedback before determining the final LRT extension routes.

The feedback was received by DoR technical division assistant director Izamir Idrus.