KUALA LUMPUR – The Selangor government’s move to cancel the implementation of the proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) is not a final decision, said caretaker menteri besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari.
Amirudin explained that the move to halt the project’s implementation was because the Selangor government determined that the project’s Social Impact Assessment (SIA) did not meet the requirements set by the state.
He said that this means that the project may still be approved if the developer is able to meet all requirements set by the state government and evaluated through the SIA, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA).
Nevertheless, Amirudin said that only the federal government has the authority to cancel the concession agreement signed between the developer company and the federal government on April 5, 2022.
“It means that as long as the company does not meet our requirements, the project cannot be implemented. But it is up to the federal government (to cancel the concession agreement),” he told reporters after announcing the unity government’s election pledges yesterday evening.
Amirudin however could not answer why he chose the third day of nomination day to make the announcement.
“But there is no problem with the timing of the announcement because the decision (Selangor state government setting requirements through EIA, TIA and SIA) was made a year ago.
“We are just announcing it (that the report did not meet the requirement) today,” he said.
In a statement yesterday, Amirudin said the decision was made after evaluating the results of the project’s EIA assessments.
“The Selangor state government does not wish to continue with this proposal and decided to cancel the application for construction of the PJD Link,” he said.
The project was first proposed and principally approved by the federal cabinet on November 12, 2017, and then handed to the Selangor State Economic Council on September 3, 2020 for further research to be conducted. – August 1, 2023