PAC: Buy affected properties
19/04/2007 The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will ask the Government to acquire the stretch of land in Sri Petaling where 188 houses are affected by the construction of the Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya Highway just 2m from their homes.

PAC chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said a report from the Auditor-General’s Office showed that the decision-making process had been flawed.

He said the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) had decided in January 1999 that the stretch of land was supposed to be acquired for the highway when the project was approved but this was not done as the highway project had been delayed.

And when the Bandar Baru Sri Petaling housing project was approved by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), he added, “somehow people forgot” this approval for the land acquisition and allowed houses to be built there, which became a problem when the highway project was revived later.

“The government departments and agencies cannot be absolved from blame. That’s why we are recommending to the Prime Minister that house owners be given the opportunity for their land to be acquired,” he said after PAC members went to Jalan 2/149, Sri Petaling, to ascertain the damage to the houses as a result of the construction of the RM1.3bil highway.

The construction of the 26km highway, so near the stretch of houses along Jalan 2/149, has caused numerous cracks on the walls of the four-year-old homes.

In September 2005, the Sri Petaling Residents Association held a protest outside Parliament voicing their grievances, and handed a memorandum to the PAC and Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.

PAC then visited the area and had DBKL appoint an expert to study whether the cracks were caused by construction of the highway.

Yesterday, during PAC’s second visit to the area, Shahrir said the expert had found it was clearly the contractor that had caused the damage to the houses.

He said there would be noise not only from the elevated highway but also the road below where the noise from vehicles would be trapped and magnified because of the structure.

Shahrir said the land could be acquired by the Government or the concessionaire.

PAC, he said, would write to the Prime Minister on the matter.

The residents' highway action committee chairman Lau Kien Foh, who met PAC members, said 70% of the house owners agreed for their land to be acquired while the remaining 30% could not be located as yet.

House owners, he said, wanted an amicable solution, but did not rule out the possibility of suing if these did not work out.