Monday July 2, 2012

Clearing the traffic in Seri Kembangan

By JAROD LIM
jarodlim@thestar.com.my

SERI Kembangan residents can breath easy as the Government has outlined more measures to alleviate the long existing traffic congestion in the area.

The most recent development was a new set of traffic lights scheduled to be installed at the Jalan Utama and Jalan SR 6/1 intersection to provide a safer route for residents heading to town.

Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching said a lot of residents from Taman Serdang Raya had complained about the difficulty of making a right turn across the busy main road on the way to Seri Kembangan town.

Breezing through: A set of traffic lights will be installed at the intersection to make it easier for vehicles to cross the road.

“This is due to the fast-moving cars coming from the Jalan Serdang Raya-Jalan Puchong-Sungai Besi intersection,” she said

“The new traffic lights will definitely help the 22,000 daily road users and decrease the frequent accidents in the area,” she explained.

She added that the road was classified under Class E — extremely bad congestion level.

The project was confirmed by Deputy Works Minister Datuk Yong Khoon Seng in a letter Teo received last Monday.

The open tender for the project will start in October this year.

The estimated cost for the traffic lights is RM200,000 and the project is expected to be be completed by the end of the year.

According to Teo, Selangor Public Works Department (JKR) plans to upgrade Jalan Besar by adding four flyovers depending on suitable locations along the road and the allocations for the project.

The project is estimated to cost RM60mil and it will benefit more than 100,000 road users.

“The plans to upgrade the main road are part of the 10th Malaysia Plan and will be carried out in 2013 or 2014,” she added.

Another project to ease the traffic would be the RM90mil interchange project in Maju Expressway (MEX) connecting to Jalan Putra Permai.

The MEX interchange is expected to take 18 months to complete.

The project, which was approved by Cabinet earlier this year, included RM20mil for land acquisition and Teo believes it will take around six months before the commencement of construction work,

“It is definitely good news for the residents as they will no longer be caught up in a traffic snarl along the road,” Teo said.

She urged the respective authorities to carry out the project within the scheduled time so that the cost of the entire project would not increase.