PUTRAJAYA – The government has cancelled the contentious Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) highway project, announced government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil.
Addressing a post-cabinet meeting press conference today, Fahmi said that the cabinet had agreed to scrap the project after its developer failed to fulfil several necessary requirements.
“(Representatives from) PJD Link had requested for additional time to fulfil several precedent conditions, but their request was rejected by the government,” said Fahmi, who is also communications minister.
“As a result of their failure to fulfil the precedent conditions, the project will not be continued.”
Noting that the developer had failed to meet six out of the 11 established requirements, Fahmi said that the Works Ministry is expected to release a statement detailing the decision behind the project’s cancellation.
Earlier this month, Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung urged the Highway Authority to declassify the concession agreement for the PJD Link project.
Last year, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the Pakatan Harapan state government decided to scrap the PJD Link project before the state election in August.
He said the impact assessment reports submitted by the developer were not satisfactory and did not meet certain conditions set by the state government, particularly its social impact assessment (SIA) report.
It is understood that PLANMalaysia Selangor had approved the project’s SIA.
Amirudin previously said the developer’s SIA stated support for the highway from Taman Medan and Kinrara residents, while Petaling Jaya residents opposed it.
He said that due to divided opinion, the developer could realign the highway to bypass areas where residents opposed it. However, this would require renegotiating with the federal government, then under Barisan Nasional control, which had already approved the project in principle.
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 government on November 12, 2021, and given conditional approval.
The condition meant that a concession agreement was signed between the Perikatan Nasional federal government and the developer on April 5, 2022, for the construction company to conduct a full environmental impact assessment, SIA and traffic impact assessment before the deal could be “activated”.
Last month, Selangor Infrastructure and Agriculture executive councillor Izham Hashim told Scoop the proposed highway had not been cancelled but was delayed as the state government awaited information from the PJD Link’s developer about revised plans for the alignment.
The PJD Link, with 11 interchanges, would have connected Bandar Utama to Bukit Jalil as a means to disperse traffic and reduce traffic congestion within Petaling Jaya. – April 17, 2024