Despite the proposed Kidex highway being far from their respective constituencies, Selangor UMNO State Assemblymen, led by ADUN for Permatang Datuk Sulaiman Abd Razak continued to push for the KIDEX highway by tabling a motion in the recent State Assembly session on 9th April 2015 as below:
“Bahawasanya Dewan yang mulia ini menggesa Kerajaan Negeri Selangori memberikan kerjasama penuh kepada Kerajaan Perseketuan bagi meneruskan pembinaan Lebuhraya Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (KIDEX) yang akan membantu kelancaran trafik di pusat-pusat bandar berkaitan.”
The UMNO assemblymen argued that Kidex will improve the traffic by quoting the Work Ministry numbers, which as we’ve exposed earlier, were cherry-picked from the Traffic Impact Assessment report by only showing roads that show traffic improvement but not the roads which traffic will be worsened with Kidex. It is also apparent that they did not study the independent traffic report commissioned by MBPJ, which also after studying the proposed highway, recommended that MBPJ not proceed with it.
In studying the traffic impact of a particular project, it is the average journey time that should be taken for a big picture decision. Based on Kidex own traffic consultant report, Jacob’s SKM, the average journey time within Petaling Jaya will only drop by 1.3% with Kidex, traffic to and fro Petaling Jaya will only drop by 2.6% and other trips only 0.38%. In another words, for one hour journey, the commuter can only save a maximum of 90 seconds with Kidex! Such journey time saving does not justify the building of the highway, which will encroach many private properties and cause various violations to environmental guidelines.
Furthermore, we would like to remind the UMNO assemblymen that Kidex is the most expensive highway in terms of cost per km in the history of Malaysia. Its price tag is as high as RM 161 million per km compared to RM 28.57 million per km for NVKE, RM 33.18 million per km for LDP, RM 37.68 million per km for KESAS, RM 69.39 million per km for NPE and RM 95.06 million per km for Ampang KL Elevated Highway. Even the nearest price tag is 40% lower than Kidex’s price!
Why should Selangor government approve such an expensive highway with virtually no traffic benefits to the people?
As such, the motion was rejected by the state assembly with all the Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen present in the session voted against it.
As the Menteri Besar has already repeatedly announced that the decision on Kidex is already final, we call upon UMNO Selangor to move on and not to table another similar motion to revive Kidex. This is only going to waste the time of the state assembly and the resources needed to allow such a debate in the house.
If the UMNO assemblyman truly have the public interest at heart, we hope that they will support the move by the Selangor Government to commission a traffic master plan that was announced by Menteri Besar Y.A.B. Azmin Ali. The traffic master plan is to identify the best ways to reduce the traffic congestion plaguing the Klang Valley, especially by encouraging a greater use of public transport. Y.A.B. Azmin Ali has given a timeframe of 6 months for this masterplan to be drafted.
We would like to emphasise here again that the Selangor Government did not reach this decision to cancel KIDEX lightly, and did so by imposing 3 clear conditions for the concessionaire, along with 3 months to fulfill the said conditions, which are:
- The concessionaire, Kidex, must provide a traffic impact and other relevant studies demonstrating substantial benefit for commuters in terms of reducing traffic congestion and travel time.
- There must be full transparency on the rate of return of the highway including the toll rates to be charged. This is to ensure that there will be no astronomical profits for the concessionaire and unfair burden on the users.
- In line with the transparency and accountability practice of the Selangor state government, Azmin also demanded that the concession agreement must be fully disclosed to the public.
We would like to record our thanks to MB Y.A.B. Azmin Ali for holding steadfast the state government’s deicison in this matter.