SHAH ALAM: Kedah and Selangor Mentris Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Selangor Utility Corridor (Kusel) and Utiliti Infra Darul Aman (UiDA).
Kusel managing director Khairul Azmi Misran signed for Selangor, whilst UiDA chief executive officer Ahmad Taufik Radzi inked the agreement for Kedah at a ceremony held at the Selangor state secretariat’s Dewan Jubli Perak here on (Sept 9).
During the press conference, Amirudin said the MOU would revolve around sharing experience and information about utility databases between the two states.
Amirudin also said Selangor faced several issues, including development and development planning.
“The development planning for each state faces the same issue, which is utility management, and in the end, we are met with a big development cost.
“From our experience in Selangor, the infrastructure development cost sometimes increases five to six times or at times even ten times higher because of the absence of a (mapping) plan,’’ said Amirudin.
He added that Selangor was quite complicated because some areas are fully developed.
Regarding information sharing between the two states, Amirudin said Selangor can learn how to develop agricultural land from Kedah, whilst Kedah can learn about managing urban areas from Selangor.
Muhammad Sanusi, meanwhile, said that one of the problems faced by Kedah is the location of reserve land for road construction.
“There is reserve land, but when located, we find that it goes through rivers or cuts into paddy fields,’’ he added.
Because of this, construction work is delayed.
Had there been a mapping system, the necessary information would have been available to help facilitate necessary measures, said Muhammad Sanusi, adding that given this, Kedah had come to learn from Selangor.
Kusel was established three years ago, while UiDA was established a year ago. Their goal is to coordinate and create an underground mapping system for utilities such as water, sewage, and gas pipes, as well as electricity and fibre optics cabling.
The main purpose is to prevent duplication during construction or damage during roadworks.
The once-feuding leaders also met at a friendly football match between their teams later in the evening at the Selangor Football Association.
