KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — Caretaker Selangor menteri besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari today announced the cancellation of the proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) that was approved by the previous federal government under the prime ministership of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in April last year.
Amirudin had indicated earlier this month that the proposed highway had only been given a conditional approval and would end up like the proposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) project that was shelved in 2015, if it failed to meet certain requirements.
“This administration’s principle is that development in Selangor should achieve a balance among the aspects of sustainability, economic progress, and not cause harm to residents,” he said in a statement this afternoon.
He said that based on the social impact assessment (SIA) report, his caretaker administration “is not satisfied with the plan that has been presented because it does not fulfil the conditions” that had been previously set by the state.
“Therefore, the Selangor government does not wish to continue with this proposal and has decided to cancel the construction of PJD Link,” he added.
The PJD Link was a proposal to build a 34.3km dual-carriage expressway with four lanes and eight interchanges/ramps as an alternative to the heavily-trafficked Lebuhraya-Damansara Puchong (LDP) to connect various fast-growing townships with Bandar Utama at one end and Bukit Jalil at the other end.
It bore a striking resemblance to the controversial Kidex that was cancelled in 2015 by the Selangor government then under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) leadership of Datuk Seri Azmin Ali who has since joined Bersatu, a party that is today a component of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
Azmin pulled the plug on Kidex in February 2015 because its developer did not produce relevant supporting studies for its proposal, namely an SIA, a traffic impact assessment (TIA), and an environmental impact assessment (EIA) besides failing to reveal the toll rates and full concession agreement.
Amirudin said the PJD Link was approved in principle by the federal government on November 12, 2017 – then under Barisan Nasional control.
He said the proposal was then submitted to the Selangor Economic Action Council on September 3, 2020 for a residential survey to be carried out in Petaling Jaya before it was presented to the federal government on November 12, 2021 and given a conditional approval.
The condition meant that the developer would have to meet all the requirements set by the Selangor government before it can proceed with construction.
Amirudin said that a concession agreement was signed between the PN federal government and the developer on April 5, 2022 for the construction company to conduct a full EIA, SIA, and TIA before the deal could be “activated”.
An independent survey released in May showed that 93.6 per cent of residents who live along the proposed alignment of the PJD Link disagreed with the project, as they believed that noise and air pollution from the proposed highway would be intolerable and that it would not reduce traffic congestion as promised either.
Similarly, 93.6 per cent of the residents surveyed agreed that they and their families would be impacted by the project.
A local residents group calling itself Say No to PJD Link opposed to the proposed highway filed a lawsuit in June against the Director General of the Department of Town and Country Planning, the Selangor State Director of the Department of Town and Country Planning, the Selangor State Government and the Malaysian Government to obtain classified documents after claiming a lack of transparency in the conditional approval.
