PSM: MRT will bring hell to Kota Damansara

Assemblyman Nasir Hashim worries that a lack of planning and wanton development will turn the town’s roads into a mess of never-ending traffic jams.

KOTA DAMANSARA: Persiaran Surian is a heavily travelled highway even during those hours when most people are supposed to be at work or at home. During peak hours, however, it is a monstrous serpent of stuck automobiles.
It is not the only road serving this hastily developed township. There are four others, and they too are notorious for traffic jams.
One would have thought that any public transportation project affecting the township would have included a plan to solve this perennial problem. However, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project is likely to make it worse.
No one is more convinced of this than Kota Damansara state assemblyman Nasir Hashim.
The PSM leader showed FMT blueprints of the six MRT stations planned for the township. They are named Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh, Rubber Research Institute (RRI) of Malaysia, Kota Damansara North, Taman Industri Sungai Buloh, Kota Damansara South and Dataran Sunway.
Directly above Persiaran Surian
The stations will be sited along Persiaran Surian and Jalan Sungai Buloh, the two main roads serving the township.
Pointing to the Dataran Sunway blueprint, Nasir said: “It will be built directly on top of Persiaran Surian.”  The other stations too will more or less sit directly atop either of the two roads.
Nasir and his staff worry that some of the roads will be closed during the MRT’s development, resulting in traffic jams that are almost unimaginably severe.
“For sure some parts of the road are going to be closed,” Nasir said. “Right now, a four-lane road is already jammed. Are we going to need an alternative road? Are they going to expand the road?”

Nowhere near residential areas
He noted that some of the stations would be far away from highly-populated residential areas.
He pointed to the Taman Industri Sungai Buloh station. There are warehouses on the right and rubber estates on the left.
The placement of the Rubber Research Institute station too was unrealistic, he said. “There are very few houses in the area.”
PSM national treasurer A Sivarajan said he had heard that the government intended to acquire certain residential lots, even though they were far from the rail tracks shown in the MRT’s public display.
“Some of the people made a check on the land areas that were on the list for acquisition, but they’re not on the alignment,” he said.
He said the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) was not forthcoming with details of the acquisition.
“We’re not sure if they’re acquiring the lots for reasons other than the rail. So we’re quite blur about this.”
Depot next to village
The PSM leader also expressed worry over the possibility of a MRT depot being built right next to Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh.
According to MRT public display images, a huge plot of land has been reserved for this purpose, with track alignment diverting from the main railway line.
Going by the images, the total land area for the proposed depot is dozens of times larger than the largest industrial warehouse in the area.
“It’s a big section of land,” Sivarajan said. “It could be 30 to 40 acres in size.”
However, he was more concerned with the depot’s operating hours, and drew a comparison with aircraft testing near Ara Damansara.
“In Ara Damansara, all those people who bought houses near the airport have to bear with aircraft testing up to four o’clock in the morning.
“When you have a depot here by the village, trains aren’t going to be running at normal hours. They’re probably going to be working at three or four in the morning.”
He added that the proposed depot sat directly on top of several TOL (Temporary Occupation License) land tracts.
“There are people here who use this land for agriculture to support their livelihood. They will be affected.”
He said many of those people had been there for decades.
Subang Bestari isolated
Another concern for the PSM men is the adjacent Subang Bestari township, connected to Kota Damansara only by Jalan Sungai Buloh.
Sivarajan said that none of the MRT tracks passed through the township despite an “alleged 40 housing estates” located in the area.
He added that the Petaling District and Land Office would be moving to the area.
FMT also learned that HELP University College would build its upcoming Subang 2 campus there, near Persiaran Cakerawala.
Despite these developments, PSM said the government had no plans to put an MRT station in the area.
SPAD intends only to route MRT feeder buses in a general circle around the entire township, instead of going through the housing areas.
“People who want to access the MRT station will have to go through Persiaran Cakerawala to get to the Sungai Buloh road,” Sivarajan said.
“It’s going to increase the traffic there.”
Even now, he added, Persiaran Cakerawala was already packed heavy traffic.
“It would be better if they could pull the MRT stations further in, or have an access road for motorists to cut across the RRI land.”
What traffic assessment?
Rumours of development at the RRI land are also of great concern to Nasir. He worries that congestion in the area will become intolerable.
“What’s going to happen if the RRI land is going to be developed? We’re already jammed around here.”
“Are there going to be alternate roads for people to move around?”
Nasir accused the government of carrying out the MRT project without conducting traffic studies.
Construction for the MRT system is expected to begin this July.
“We don’t want construction to begin suddenly and then we will have to put up with 24 hours of traffic jams,” Nasir said.
Pointing to Persiaran Surian, he remarked: “Now it’s hell. Soon, it’s going to be super hell.”