Residents suggest shorter waiting times and new interchange to lessen congestion

The Star, Tuesday February 5, 2013

Story and photo by OH ING YEEN
ingyeen@thestar.com.my

Solution at hand: A shorter waiting time at traffic lights and a new interchange are the two proposals aimed at easing congestion at the busy junction of Persiaran Bandar Mahkota Cheras 1 and the Grand Saga Highway.

 

A SHORTER waiting time at traffic lights and a new interchange are two proposals aimed to ease congestion at the busy junction of Persiaran Bandar Mahkota Cheras 1 and the Grand Saga Highway.

The long-standing issue has yet to be solved despite numerous complaints over the years by residents and business owners in Bandar Mahkota Cheras that are affected by the jam.

Bandar Mahkota Cheras Section 9 Rukun Tetangga chairman John Lee said, “A detailed plan is needed to alleviate the jam.”

Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) councillors have also held several press conferences regarding this issue (“Residents seeing red over congestion issue”, June 7, 2012).

At a press conference at the site yesterday, Dusun Tua assemblyman, Ismail Sani, announced the two plans to ease congestion.

“The short-term plan is to lessen waiting time from a total of four minutes to two minutes.

“If a new interchange is implemented, there will be a smoother flow of traffic by the end of this year,” he said.

Also with him were residents and representatives from the highway concessionaire Grand Saga and Public Works Department (PWD).

He added, “We need to take into consideration the construction of the MyRapid Transit (MRT) Sungai Buloh-Kajang line when planning the interchange.

“Some parts of the roads that are currently under the PWD have to be handed over to the council.”

The short-term remedy seemed to contradict what residents want when they attributed the congestion to the quick change of lights last year (“Quick change of lights causing jams in Bandar Mahkota Cheras”, Jan 5, 2012).

Bandar Mahkota Cheras Residents’ Association chairman, Bryan Tong, was quoted as saying that the traffic nightmare began in 2008 when the access road to the Cheras-Kajang Highway was re-opened.

“At the traffic lights installed at the entrance to Bandar Mahkota Cheras, the green signal only flashes for 20 seconds for traffic exiting our township to the highway and this creates congestion,” he said.

Bandar Mahkota Cheras resident S. Ravi, who has been living there for seven years, also agreed, “We would rather have a slower change of lights to allow more cars to pass.”

He urged the authorities to study the traffic light system as he noticed that traffic was smoother when the traffic light malfunctions.

“The roads are constantly congested and worsens during peak hours. It takes more than 30 minutes for me to get to the highway from my house, which is only a distance of 2km to 3km.

“I sometimes regret buying a house here,” the 50-year-old said.

As for residents’ and business owners’ request for a signboard to direct road users from the highway, Ismail said the concessionaire has agreed in principle for the sign to be installed and the cost will be borne by Bandar Mahkota Cheras’ developer.