Short on detail but Skip expressway already part of Selangor local city plan

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — A 17.5km expressway which will be integrated with the controversial Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) has already been incorporated into Selangor’s local city plan despite official records showing otherwise and a lack of publicly available details.

The Serdang-Kinrara-Putrajaya (Skip) expressway, part of an intricate network of six new expressways to ease traffic congestion and improve connectivity in the state was amended to be part of the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ)’s 2020 local city blueprint plan in 2012, according to the local council’s latest map plan sighted by The Malay Mail Online.

But the official report on all the amendments to MPSJ’s local blueprint for Subang Jaya city, which was prepared by the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD)  in February 2012 does not mention the highway,  raising questions over how the project came to be included in the local city plan.

“The Skip (developer) has submitted a draft plan to MPSJ, but as far as I am aware, they have not submitted an official application,” DAP Kinrara state assemblyman Ng Sze Han, who was MPSJ councillor from 2008 to 2012 told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Asked whether he was aware that MPSJ had approved an amendment to include Skip as part of its local plan, Ng simply said “no.”

Any proposal by MPSJ to amend its local city plan needs to be brought to the Selangor state planning committee (SPC) where it will be deliberated. If found to have satisfied basic conditions, proposals are then presented via a public hearing for feedback.

After public feedback is obtained, the amendment will be brought back to the state planning committee for a final stamp of approval.

“I can’t remember whether the Skip highway was agreed upon by all MPSJ councillors, or whether there was a public briefing, I can’t remember,” Ng said when pressed on whether he was present when the local city council decided to approve the amendment for the expressway.

But Ismail Muhammad, the MPSJ officer in charge of urban planning insists that the amendment procedure to incorporate the Skip expressway was above board, despite admitting that the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) had yet to furnish details on Skip’s finalised alignment route.

“The Skip plan and Kidex was displayed during a public briefing on MPSJ’s planned amendments from February 13, 2012 to March 19, 2012... we did inform the public,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“If there are any changes to Skip, we can just amend it (the city blueprint) again... we put it in so that we can have a rough idea of how the highway alignment will roughly look like,” Ismail explained.

But including Skip into MPSJ local plan without proper documents, details or public consultation would be problematic as it prevents the local council from carrying the proper scrutiny of the project.

Lee Suet Sen, a local councillor with the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) told The Malay Mail Online that he found MPSJ’s approval for Skip “strange” as it raises the question of transparency, especially when dealing with a major project like a highway.

“For MBPJ, the councillors have demanded that the developers for the Kidex highway furnish official traffic and environmental impact assessment reports before any approval is given to amend the Petaling Jaya City plan...the same standards should apply for MPSJ as well,” he told The Malay Mail Online.

Just like Kidex,  the Skip expressway project lacks details on costs but unlike Skip, Kidex has already been given a “condition precedent” by the Works Ministry.

Investigations by The Malay Mail Online revealed that the highway has already been awarded to a private company — Putrajaya Perdana Berhad through its concession subsidiary Putra Perdana Expressways Sdn Bhd (PPE).

Its official website (http://www.p-perdana.com/expressway-skip.php)  states that Skip is “an intra-urban expressway completing the ‘missing links’ to the planned and existing highway/expressway networks within the Greater Kuala Lumpur.”

“Integrating with the proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) at Kinrara, the Skip-Kidex expressway will complement the intra-urban expressway network to service the travel desire route between the North and North-Eastern sector (i.e. Damansara and Ampang) and the South-Eastern sector (such as Serdang, Kinrara, Putrajaya/Cyberjaya and KLIA areas),” said the statement on the website.

A spokesperson for the developer said that the Skip highway was already in the “final stage”, and that it had already been given a blanket approval by relevant “state and federal agencies.”

“The EIA (environmental impact assessment) and TIA (traffic impact assessment) report is already ready....Selangor even approved it through MTES (Selangor Economic Action Council),” said the spokesperson who declined to be named.

This tallies with Selangor mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s latest remarks confirming that his administration had given a conditional approval for Skip, Kidex and four other expressways- Sungai Besi-Ulu Klang Expressway (Suke), Damansara Shah Alam Expressway (Dash) and the Pantai Barat Expressway (LLB).

At the time of writing, it is not known when the highway will be constructed or when it is expected to be finished.