SHAH ALAM: The mentris besar of Selangor and Kedah have put aside their differences for an important occasion, beneficial to both states.
Both 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) here yesterday.
It is a collaboration over matters regarding the formulation of underground utility databases.
Kusel managing director Khairul Azmi Misran signed for Selangor while 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.
During the press conference, Amirudin, who is Selangor Mentri Besar, said the MOU would revolve around the sharing of experience and information in regards to utility databases between the two states.
Amirudin added that there were several issues faced by Selangor, such as development and development planning.
“The development planning for each state faces the same issue, which is utility management and at 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 even 10 times higher because of the absence of a (mapping) plan,’’ he said.
Amirudin said with the MOU, Selangor could learn about managing agricultural land from Kedah while the latter could learn about dealing with urban areas from the former.
Earlier in his speech, he said it was crucial to ensure the state’s 24,000km-long pipe is not damaged during construction or roadworks.
He shared how an underground water pipe had burst during construction and caused water disruption just after two or three months following his appointment as mentri besar in 2018.
“I came under heavy fire and it was worse than when Sanusi had ‘hit’ me,” quipped Amirudin.
Muhammad Sanusi, meanwhile, said that among the problems faced by Kedah was the location of reserve land for the construction of roads.
“There is reserve land, but when located, we find that it goes through rivers or cuts into padi fields,’’ said the Kedah Mentri Besar, adding that because of this, construction work was delayed.
Had there been a mapping system, the necessary information would be available to facilitate the required measures, he said, adding that Kedah wanted to learn about this from Selangor.
Earlier in his speech, Muhammad Sanusi said his Selangor counterpart was a gentleman.
“We have had some political friction,” he said.
Kusel was established three years ago, while UiDA was set up last year to coordinate and create an underground mapping system for utilities such as water, sewage and gas pipes as well as electricity and fibre optics cables.
Their main purpose is to prevent duplication or damage during roadworks.
The once feuding leaders also met at a friendly football match between their teams held at the Selangor Football Association yesterday evening.
“Come and watch Selangor getting thrashed by Kedah,” Muhammad Sanusi jokingly told pressmen after the signing ceremony.
Amirudin had sued Muhammad Sanusi in August last year over the latter’s allegation that the Selangor Mentri Besar was getting kickback from a local tycoon pertaining to the Klang River cleaning project.
Muhammad Sanusi was also charged under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 for speaking despairingly over Selangor Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s appointment of Amirudin as the state’s mentri besar.
