Maria Chin Abdullah said it was irresponsible of works minister Fadillah Yusof to approve the PJD Link as well as two other highway projects in the state, namely the Putrajaya-Bangi Expressway (PBE) and the Kuala Lumpur Northern Dispersal Expressway (KL-NODE).

“It’s very irresponsible for the minister to make a blanket announcement on the matter.

“With the Selangor government having not received the social, environmental, and transportation impact reports, why then did the federal government give the go-ahead for the projects?” she said.

Maria was speaking to reporters at a protest staged by residents at Section 14, here this morning. The protest was organised by Stakeholders cum Residents Against PJDL (Scrap).

She urged the government to think of alternatives to the project.

“The residents had rejected this project in the past, so there’s no need for another discussion. Don’t take the easy way out.

“Other countries had gone into providing walkways for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as improving public transport and underground highways.

“It’s best for us to discuss those options, especially public transport, instead of building highways everywhere,” she said.

Selayang MP William Leong, Sungai Pelek assemblyman Ronnie Liu and Taman Medan assemblyman Syamsul Firdaus Mohamed Supri also joined the protest.

Last month, Fadillah said that all three projects would be fully funded by the concessionaires. The PJD Link, which is a tolled elevated highway, would cut across densely populated parts of Petaling Jaya.

Scrap chairman David Yoong said that the PJD Link is incongruent with the city’s aspiration to achieve low carbon city status by 2030, adding that this would add to the traffic congestion in PJ.

“When you build the highway, you are also channelling more traffic to local roads. This means you are going to have cars pouring down here and making the traffic worse,” he said.