Seri Kembangan folk still waiting for progress

The Star - 17 March 2010

ALTHOUGH the Seri Kembangan constituency comes under the jurisdiction of the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ), it does not enjoy equal importance as Puchong and Subang Jaya as far as development projects are concerned.
Former Serdang MP Datuk Yap Pian Hon pointed out that several projects that were in the pipeline were either stalled or had yet to materialise.
Residents of Seri Kembangan, especially motorists, have been waiting for the past 10 years for the projects to take off and relieve them of the anxiety they have to go through every day.



Still in progress: Upgrading work was supposed to have been carried out in Jalan Putra Permai, which connects motorists from the LDP to Seri Kembangan.

A futile wait for a flyover near Taman Serdang Perdana and another at the junction to the Seri Kembangan Commercial Centre (SKCC) are among the eight projects Yap pointed out that MPSJ had announced in the late 1990s that had yet to take off.
Yap said Seri Kembangan had developed tremendously and, in certain instances, was much more developed than areas in Puchong and Subang Jaya.
“There is a need to re-look at these stalled and proposed projects for the benefit of the community at large,” he said.
The other projects he pointed out were the proposed upgrading work for Jalan BS 3/1 until the MPSJ market (Jalan BS 5/27), Bukit Serdang and from Jalan SK 6/1 to Jalan Putra Permai.
When contacted, MPSJ assistant director (Public Relations) Azfarizal Abdul Rashid said the infrastructure contributions from developers were supposed to be used for upgrading work from Jalan BS 3/1 to Jalan BS 5/27 (MPSJ market), Bukit Serdang.
“The estimated cost is RM6.4mil. Of the nine developers involved, six have sent in their development plans,” he said.
Azfarizal added that so far, the infrastructure contribution was RM2.1mil and since there was no contribution from the remaining three developers, the project was stalled.

So far yet so near: The MEX expressway crosses Jalan Putra Permai but does not provide a link to motorists in Seri Kembanagan and its surrounding areas.
However, he said there was some good news for residents in the industrial area in Section 14, Bukit Serdang.
“A traffic impact assessment (TIA) was carried out and the report was discussed at the MPSJ Infra Committee in February. The change for the traffic flow will be subjected to the council’s decision during the next full board meeting,” he said.
However, he could not provide a reply on the alternative link from Serdang Perdana, a busy commercial centre, to the Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Highway which now only allows one-way traffic flow — from the highway to Serdang Perdana — and the re-development plans for the old market site in Seri Kembangan.
Since 2007, the access to the highway has been a bone of contention and although the Malaysian Highway Authority has approved the project, MPSJ has remained non-committal.
It is learnt that the RM12mil proposed flyover in Taman Perdana was stalled since only three of the seven developers had submitted their building plans and contributed towards the infrastructure contribution.
MPSJ has only received RM2.6mil so far and the project would only start when the fund has reached more than 50% of the construction cost.

As for the multi-tier “semi-diamond” flyover proposed to be built at the SKCC along Jalan Putra Permai which links Seri Kembangan to the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) to ease traffic congestion along the stretch, Azfarizal said the project came under the purview of JKR since it was a federal road.
Seri Kembangan residents are also asking for a link from Jalan Putra Permai to the KL-Putrajaya Dedicated Highway, now known as the Maju Expressway (MEX), to help ease traffic flow in and around the town.
The proposal for a link was first brought up in April 2006 during the tenure of then council president Datuk Mohd Arif Abdul Rahman.
Yap, who is also the Serdang MCA parliamentary services and co-ordination chief, said in the initial planning stages, there were also no plans to develop the Putra Permai township.
“Now, the traffic situation is worsening along Jalan Putra Permai as motorists use the route to access the KL-Seremban Highway,” Yap said.
He said the main road in Seri Kembangan was already congested and the link to MEX could provide motorists with a shorter and faster route to the city.