More Growth In Subang

Taken from the Star last week, no doubt growth areas in every urban hub will always be affected by traffic woes...

LEMBAH Subang, located at a relatively untapped fringe of Petaling Jaya, has become a magnet for development projects in recent years as the other parts of the city have been intensely developed.

Condominium blocks, terrace houses and the government’s People Housing Programme flats have mushroomed in the once pleasant area. The fast-developing commercial areas there are also attracting people from near and far.

However, instead of benefiting from the vibrant activities and attractive real estate values, the residents there are now grappling with daily traffic problems, not only on the congested LDP but also within their housing areas, some right in front of their homes.

The residents will have to brace themselves for an even worse situation in the near future as it has been revealed recently that work will start soon on several major development projects approved by the previous state administration. One mega development includes a hotel in its plan.

Such a scenario calls for an urgent need for a macro traffic study covering the whole of Petaling Jaya Utara (PJU), if not the entire city, to ensure that the city will still be livable in the next few years.


Taking shape: Highrise buildings are coming up in Lembah Subang.
According to city councillor Cynthia Gabriel, who raised the matter at a full board meeting of the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), the previous state government had approved several major commercial developments measuring nearly a million square metres in total.

“Should what have been approved are implemented, the area will have an additional 5,000 residential units, 500 shops and 1,000 hotel rooms, or perhaps even more,’’ she said.

According to Cynthia, future developments in the area include the Oasis Ara Damansara, NZX Square, Paradigm, the Golden City Development in SS4, a commercial hub at the site of the Football Association of Selangor (FAS) football field, office blocks at the site of the Baywatch Cafe in Dataran Prima and the second phase of Dataran Prima.

Currently, the residents of the various housing projects in Lembah Subang prefer to enter Petaling Jaya via one of the three tunnels instead of the proper exit at the Saujana Interchange that requires them to travel a much longer distance.

One tunnel, popularly called the FAS Tunnel, is located near the FAS field in Kelana Jaya. The others are the NZX or Lembah Subang Tunnel at Taman Megah Mas and the Tropicana Tunnel.

The use of these tunnels as short-cut routes by motorists is causing daily traffic chaos and giving the residents nightmares.

In Taman Megah Mas, for example, the traffic congestion starts right in front of their homes before 7am and subsides only after 9am. In the evening, the residents can only reach home after 8pm when the after-work rush-hour congestion eases.

Transport management expert Goh Bok Yen, who was commissioned by the MBPJ to find solutions to the problems arising from the tunnels, was among those who raised the alert on the anticipated worsening of the traffic scanerio.

“With the new developments, which should be completed within the next five to 10 years, Lembah Subang will have an additional 400,000 PCU/day (Passengger Car Unit), that will be an additional 23,000 PCU/hour in the morning and 31,000 PCU/hour in the evening and the existing infrastructure cannot possibly take all this,” Goh said.

“We can see the beginning of the worst in just five years. Let us all face the fact now and find out how to resolve this problem. It would be costly in terms of the magnitude but we can’t avoid that. It is meaningless to have huge developments that would sacrifice comfortable living,” he said.

Goh believes that the lack of an infrastructure masterplan for the city may be the cause of the problem.

“It is understandable that the pressure of development is there in a dynamic city but the MBPJ should have an overall view to monitor developments and to guide developers,” he said.

The affected residents are obviously upset and frustrated and demand a permanent solution to the problem.


Blocked: The missing link at Jalan PJU1A/1 is supposed to connect Ara Damansara and Tropicana but has been put on hold following concerns over congestion that may spill over to Tropicana.
“What do you think lies ahead in the future for us when the approved developments take shape? The thought of it sends a chill down our spines,” Taman Megah Mas Residents Association secretary Dr Chau Foong Yeap said.

“The situation is unfair to those who have been living in this area for more than 15 years.

“No thanks to all these developments, we lost our once pleasant neighbourhood,” he said.

Ara Damansara resident Peter Tan said piling and land clearing were always ongoing in the housing estate.

“The residents are putting up with the daily gridlock even within the housing estates. How can the existing roads cope with thousands of more vehicles when these developments are completed?” he asked.

Tan said the MBPJ should come out with a more efficient traffic dispersal system.

The situation at PJU during the recent months has aggravated the already sour relationship between the residents and development companies, resulting in a flurry of peaceful demonstrations at various parts of the city as the residents voiced out their unhappiness over the unabated developments affecting their quality of life.

The current situation highlights the need to revive fast the procedure of the Petaling Jaya Local Plan 2 (PJLC2), before more haphazard developments cause further chaos in this part of the city.

The series of public hearings on the draft PJLC2 were put on hold after the 12th general election in March last year to allow the state to reassess the contents in response to concern over development density.

It is learned that the MBPJ is now ready to continue the process pending a date set by the state government.