LETTERS: The uproar over the Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) among people living in Damansara, Petaling Jaya and Kinrara is a consequence of the conflict between private profit over public interest.
Damansara has 250,000 residents, PJ boasts 2.3 million and Kinrara/Puchong is steadily marching towards 360,000. The large population and high car ownership rates of these areas are why housing developers and highway planners are bombarding the government with unsolicited highway proposals.
The government not only entertains these proposals but grapples with them without the guidance of a highway masterplan. The Works Ministry is navigating uncharted territory without a roadmap. The structural plans of the local authorities are not much help as they do not earmark such a highway, either.
This predicament adds to the problems during acquisition of land for the highway.
Therefore, when ministers give the nod to these unsolicited proposals for state governments and local authorities to consider, conflicts arise between federal approval and the local authorities.
Amid the chaos, the developers, like the highwaymen they are, envision huge profits, while politicians, rather than addressing public concerns, seem keen on dividing shared revenues. The residents, burdened by toll payments at every turn, can only voice their dissatisfaction.
In Damansara, PJ and Kinrara, toll-free roads have become relics of the past. Every car journey incurs toll charges, rendering toll-free roads an unknown concept to the younger generation born after 1990.
These highways mark the residents first ride home from the hospital to their final journey to the graveyard, symbolising a continuous toll on their lives.
The proposal for yet another tolled highway, once known as the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) and now rebranded as the PJD Link heightens concerns.
Despite 83 per cent of surveyed individuals rejecting the highway, the state government remains unmoved.
The pressing question that no one asks is: Do the residents of Petaling Jaya, Kinrara, Puchong and Damansara need another tolled highway or, what they actually need is a newer form of public transport?
ROSLI KHAN
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times