Bukit Gasing folk continue to voice unease
PETALING JAYA: The now-scrapped PJD Link Highway is still a hot topic in Bukit Gasing as the 25.4km dual-lane tolled elevated expressway connecting Damansara to Bandar Kinrara continues to create unease for voters in the constituency.
Muda candidate VKK Raja said his party wants to be the loudest voice when it comes to the PJD Link.
“As you know Bukit Gasing will be really affected, when you take parts of Section 1 and Section 2 right up to Section 14 and Section 17, major parts of Bukit Gasing is affected by the PJD Link, not to mention the land acquisition necessary in order to accomplish this project,” he said.
There will be issues such as the potential depreciation of property prices, along with the fate of the ageing population that may need to be relocated, he added.
He said Muda as a party has been supporting the ‘Say No To PJD Link’ cause.
“When you look at the quality of living, Petaling Jaya residents are not concerned about having elevated highways. They want better transportation. I think there must be focus on urban planning,” he said while urging the state government to release the social impact assessment (SIA) as well as the environmental impact assessment (EIA) study reports.
“What I want to urge is to release the SIA and EIA to the residents so they can see how it may affect them, and have something as simple as a town hall,” he said.
Perikatan Nasional’s candidate in Bukit Gasing D. Nallan hopes the state government will keep its promise to cancel PJD.
“They said they are going put a stop to it, and that they will not be moving forward with it.
“I am just surprised how suddenly during the campaigning period, the (caretaker) state government can make such a huge decision. I hope the state government will keep its word,” he added.
Bukit Gasing incumbent and Pakatan Harapan candidate Rajiv Rishyakaran said Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari has made it clear with his statement that the project has been scrapped, and the project will not proceed if the developers fail to meet the criteria.
“So, he has already said that if the (plan) submitted does not differ from that of the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex, which was cancelled in 2015), then the answer is a no. Only very recently the submission arrived at the state,” he said, adding that the government had rejected the proposal twice in the past.
“The developer has already applied three times.
“If they applied the fourth time and came back to the same highway again ... the answer is a no. I don’t see any reason to reconsider the same highway that has been rejected twice,” he said.
Rajiv also said it is the former Perikatan-led Federal Government that had approved the project in 2022.
On July 31, Amirudin, as caretaker Mentri Besar, announced that Selangor had decided to scrap PJD Link as several conditions were not met.
