Despite Fahmi’s announcement, PJD Link says yet to be notified by govt on cancellation of highway project
KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link developer PJD Link (M) Sdn Bhd said today it has yet to be notified that talks on its application for an extension to fulfil several conditions precedent (CP) were halted.
According to the company, the unfulfilled conditions as mentioned by Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil, were in fact due to the CP which had taken longer than expected due to the complexities of this project.
“While we acknowledge there are concerns from the public, the project also garnered widespread support from the stakeholders along the alignment,” PJD Link said in a statement here.
“Its holistic economic and social benefits promise to significantly enhance sustainability and well-being across Selangor and the broader Klang Valley region.
“We are also in the midst of studying requests to review the alignment of the highway,” it added.
Yesterday, the government has decided that it will not continue with the PJD Link project.
Fahmi said that the Cabinet has decided not to continue discussions with the PJD Link developer after they failed to fulfil the conditions precedent contained in the concession agreement (CA) to enable the agreement to take effect.
PJD Link added that the proposed highway is also intended to be fully privately funded, with no expenditure from the state or federal government.
“This project which is owned by the Federal Government through the Works Ministry had already gone through detailed scrutiny by all relevant ministries and regulatory bodies.
“These concluded with the approvals of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA); Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA); and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) reports,” PJD Link added.
PJD Link added that it is ready to address any misconceptions surrounding the development and engage in ongoing discussions about this vital infrastructure project.
“We will continue to work alongside the relevant government agencies, including the Federal and State, to see how this project can be viable for the people of Selangor and the greater Klang Valley as well,” it said.
On March 1, 2023, the company proposing to build the PJD Link was reportedly in the process of fulfilling the conditions precedent contained in the concession agreement (CA) to enable the agreement to take effect.
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.
The PJD Link was approved by the previous federal government under the prime ministership of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in April 2022.
According to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, the PJD Link was approved in principle by the federal government on November 12, 2017 — then under Barisan Nasional control.
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 full assessments before the deal could be "activated”.
An independent survey released in May 2023 showed that 93.6 per cent of residents living 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 residents group calling itself Say No to PJD Link opposed to the proposed highway filed a lawsuit in June 2023 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.
