KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — The Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur (SCKL) marathon will go on this Sunday as scheduled, its organiser said today even as the capital city continues to be enveloped in a thick haze caused by forest fires from Sumatra.

But the SCKL organiser added it is monitoring the haze conditions and will only make a final decision on Friday whether or not to carry on with the popular city race that has attracted tens of thousands of participants domestically and from abroad.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation and all race day preparations are well on the way.

“We will make an announcement on Friday evening whether the race will proceed on Sunday, 4th October,” the organiser said in a statement.

SCKL participants can continue to collect their race kits from Thursday onwards at Dataran Merdeka, the statement added.

Attempts by Malay Mail Online about conditions that would warrant a cancellation or SCKL’s return policy have gone unanswered.

First started in 2009, the SCKL marathon covers a distance of 42km starting from historic Dataran Merdeka in the city, with registered participants now numbering over 30,000.

Many parts of Malaysia along its west coast and Borneo state of Sarawak has been shrouded in haze for several weeks after large open burning were reported in Indonesia, prompting its government as well as the Singaporean government to take legal action against the some eight plantation companies responsible for the blaze, Bloomberg reported today.

Indonesia is investigating 100 companies but has so far frozen or revoked licenses for four plantation companies, Bloomberg reported, adding that the government will also investigate Singaporean and Malaysian companies there.

Haze levels plunged to “very unhealthy” levels on Sunday as Shah Alam recorded a reading of 281 on the Air Pollutant Index (API) while Port Klang hit the 252 mark.

Today, however, air conditions improved with most areas in Malaysia recording moderate API levels except for certain locations in Selangor, Johor and Pahang which recorded “unhealthy” API readings.

Larkin Lama in Johor recorded the highest API reading of 131, followed by Balok Baru in, Pahang, which hit 123, according to Bernama.

Batu Muda and Cheras, Selangor saw 119 and 106 API readings respectively, while Pasir Gudang, Johor saw a 118 API reading and Indera Mahkota, Pahang saw a 110 API reading.