KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Four Petaling Jaya residents, led by lawyer T Chakaravarthi, have written to the Town and Country Planning Department, the Selangor Economic Action Council and Selangor government for them to be given a copy of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Transport Impact Assessment (TIA) reports in relation to the PJ Dispersal Link project.

The letters of demand (LODs) dated May 23 were handed to the department, council and government through the firm of Messrs Lim Wei Jiet.

The residents in their LODs claimed that they require access to these documents for them to study the findings and determine the veracity, independence and methodology used by PJD Link (M) Sdn Bhd’s consultants in arriving at their findings.

This is so that the residents could provide a response or a counter report if deemed necessary as the authorities would decide on the approval of the PJD Link project based on the EIA, SIA and TIA reports submitted by PJD Link, which has an interest for the project to get the greenlight.

The residents also claimed that through media reports some residents had raised concerns over the methodology deployed by the consultants, as well as the alleged lack of transparency and detail of information in several focus group discussions conducted by the consultants.

Besides requesting for the EIA, SIA and TIA reports, the four of them are also requesting the focus group discussion minutes, the detailed alignment design of the PJD Link highway and all other documents submitted in support for the company to gain approval of the project.

The PJ residents also stated that as they would be directly affected by the construction of the PJD Link project in terms of escalating traffic jams in the area, disturbance to the local communities, overdevelopment, noise pollution and negative repercussions on the environment, they have a right to be given access to these documents.

This is so that they could provide the necessary input to the authorities and the government bodies approving it have an obligation to uphold transparency, accountability and the right to the information.

This follows the Town and Country Planning department having in late April or earlier this month indicated that after perusal it would forward the matter to the Selangor Economic Action council for discussion.

Initially, the planned highway was scrapped in 2015 by the Selangor government, only for it to be revived again in 2021.

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