According to English daily The Star, the local council is fuming because the temple committee failed to acquire their approval to carry out the “makeover.”
According to the council’s corporate communications director Mohamad Zin Masoad, the temple has since been slapped with a warning notice under the Streets Drainage and Building Act 1976, which stipulates that no person shall erect any building without the prior written permission of the local authority.
He said the temple committee had two weeks to respond, now that the notice was served.
The council’s president Suliman Abd Rahman was also expected to visit the construction site in the next two weeks, said the report.
The unsanctioned renovations have raised fears over visitors’ safety as well, given that the celebration of Thaipusam is only months away, and millions of devotees and visitors would converge at the iconic temple.
A regular temple visitor told the daily that there were no signboards at the premises to notify the public of the renovations.
A check by the daily also revealed that several areas of the temple were undergoing extensive renovation.
This included the temple at the base of the hill, and inside the cave itself. A fourth set of stairs was also being erected, in addition to those already in place.
A portion of the temple located at the base of the hill beside one set of stairs, has also been levelled and cemented. It is believed an artificial waterfall is to be installed there, a move that has raised concerns among nature lovers.
The report quoted Malaysian Cave and Karst Conservancy secretary Surin Suksuwan as saying that limestone, the core element of the Batu Caves hill, could dissolve when in contact with water.
He said that erecting an artificial waterfall was a bad idea as it would not only erode the cliff’s face, but the caves itself.
Meanwhile temple committee secretary Sethu Kumarasamy told The Star that the MPS had been notified about their plans to renovate the temple as early as March this year. He however denied an artificial waterfall was part of their plan.
He said the committee would meet with the council to explain the scope of the renovations soon.
Sethu said the renovations were in conjunction with the temple’s consecration ceremony, held once every 12 years, and was partly aimed at preventing rainwater from seeping through the roofs.
He also said construction work at the site would go on as planned, despite the local council’s warning and protests from environmentalists.
This is not the first time the temple committee has had run-ins with the authorities. Back in 2011, it was forced to pull the brakes on a plan to operate cable cars to the hilltop. The following year, the Selangor state government issued a stop work order on plans to erect two blocks of condominiums beside the temple.