Prasarana must try harder to realign track from green lung to median!

This morning BK 3 residents came out in full force, urging Prasarana to try harder in order to move the LRT track away from their green lung area to the median.

No one is against the LRT project, the residents just have a simple request.

The message is loud and clear.

SAVE OUR TREES
NO LRT TRACK NEXT TO OUR HOUSES
NO NOISE POLLUTION
GIVE US BACK THE GREEN BUFFER ZONE
RAISE UP STATION 04 & THE TRACK TO CLEAR THE RAMP
LISTEN TO THE 'RAKYAT'

AND.. PRASARANA MUST TRY HARDER TO COME UP WITH A SOLUTION.

A big "THANK YOU" for all the residents who turned up and showed their support this morning.

Back to Drawing Board!

It is consensus opinion amongst BK3 residents who attended the dialogue in MPSJ yesterday that Prasarana should go back to drawing board again to restudy the alignment of the LRT track.
 

Prasarana should go back to drawing board

With the presence of YB Theresa Kok, residents who attended the dialogue pointed out no matter how difficult it is, it is still an engineer's job to find the best solution to realign LRT track back to the middle of Bukit Jalil highway. 

As it is now, Prasarana is just taking the easy way out without considering the negative impact the tracks will bring to the residents.

Although the residents found out from the dialogue station no. 5 is indeed canceled (now marked in the drawing as possible future expansion station), nothing has been done to the realignment of the LRT track.

There are other parties present who wanted the station back but they were easily out-numbered by the residents of BK 3. The support from the residents of BK3 has been incredible all this while, even after facing so many obstacles, including sacrificing their time during work hours to attend the dialogue yesterday.

Some proponent of station no. 5 also feel bad for the residents in BK3, and openly supported the effort to push for the realignment of the tracks as well. 

It is inconclusive at this moment whether station no. 5 will be brought back but judging from the presence of the supporters from various camps, BK3 residents definitely have the upper hand.

One clear message we are sending to them is there is no way BK3 residents can accept station no. 5 in our area without realignment of the LRT track.

Say no to LRT track on green lung

In a separate event, it is rather unfortunate some residence in KL have to face similar predicament as us here in BK 3 with the MRT alignment. Is Prasarana really bulldozing their way aruond? According to Ong Tee Keat, they certainly are (read the full article here).

Malaysia Insider article on MRT realignment issue

Are they doing the same thing to us here in BK3? It certainly feels that way.

Meeting MPSJ didn't get us anywhere, but there is a silver lining.

 Don't wait, sign your online petition here now!

To cut a long story short, we are back to square one again after four months of back and forth discusssion with Prasarana.

Meeting with MPSJ and Prasarana

Even though the meeting was held during a work day, many BK 3 folks felt necessary to show up and support our cause for the good of BK 3 community. Fifty-five BK 3 residents showed up at the meeting last Wednesday morning. The turn out was just unbelievable.

BK 3 residents signing in.

BK 3 residents at the briefing

Besides that, the briefing by Prasarana in MPSJ office was a let down. They didn't bring anything new to the table. Everything was just the same like when it was started.

Encik Yunos Khashid, Pengarah, Bahagian Perancangan Bandar MPSJ

Briefing from Prasarana

To summarize the whole meeting:

1) No, the track can not be relocated away from the "green lung"

2) No, station no. 5 remains where it is.

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This is the message Prasarana was telling us after four months of their study, with input from their consultants. 

In other words nothing can be done.

It is our feeling the whole meeting was put together in a very rush manner with not enough facts to back up their points. Things just weren't explained to us in a satisfactory manner.

When BK 3 residents asked who decided station no. 5 has to be in BK 3, no one could give us an answer.

No explanation was given on the traffic study as well. Prasarana just mention this is a drop and ride station, without any parking area provided. 

There was no traffic studies whatsoever on what impact the station will bring to the surrounding area.

Prasarana even presented us an artist's impression of how the station and track will look like at our green lung area (see below). It is not pretty.

Artist's impression of station no. 5 and track at green lung

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While our government often spend millions and millions of ringgit in building white elephant projects, they just couldn't allocate more fund to restudy, relocate and rebuild the ramp to BK 5 area so that the LRT track can be at the centre of highway? 

With station no. 4 just a stone's throw away, why can't station no. 5 be relocated or canceled all together?

In the long run, that is the best solution with the least impact to the lives of the residents around our area.

So where is the silver lining?

With all the bureacracy our system has, we believe this is just one of the stages we have to go through. Quite simply put, neither Prasarana nor MPSJ are in a position to make the decision on our demands.

Therefore, MPSJ suggested we present a memorandum about LRT station no. 5 and track at green lung issue for  them to be discussed at the next Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Selangor (MTES) meeting.

In other words, the Selangor government will be making the final decision. We are moving this thing higher up. That is the silver lining.

It is getting closer and closer to the end. We have waited for four months and will certainly continue to fight for the future of BK 3 community.  

Your support has become more crucial than ever. We are still collecting as many signatures as we can. Please continue to provide us as much support as you can.

Be ready for the next meeting with the Selangor government. We will need more residents to be there to make our case stronger.

Help spread the news. It is not over yet but getting tougher.

Don't wait, sign your online petition here now!

Just say "NO"

Everyone wants the convenience of a LRT station close to their area. I imagine the residents in BK 3 feel the same way. However, the convenience of having a LRT station here comes with a price.

When the LRT track runs through BK 3, it will encroach into our green lung area, and station no. 5 will be right at our door steps. I have no idea why the planner or designer decided to do it that way. Obviously not much thought was put into considering the effect of all these to the residents around that area.

If the plan materialized, the negative impacts will be there. All the social ills, security problems, traffic congestion, parking woes and noise pollutions that are common to commercial area will eventually be part of our lives here in BK 3.

In fact, BK 3 will be turned into a public area. It will definitely become more like a commercial area than a residential area. 

Posters put up by residents

Some residents have already started an awareness campaign to let everyone understand the problem. We all know that with the support of the residents, something can still be done.

We are not really against the LRT line extension. It is just not right to put so little thought into planning a project of such magnitude, that affects people's life in a negative way. Better options are clearly available.

The LRT track should be realigned away from our green lung area, to the middle of Bukit Jalil highway. The trees at green lung area actually act as a buffer zone that cut off the noise and dust pollution from Bukit Jalil highway. They should be preserved.

We also don't need station no. 5 in our area. If the residents need to use the LRT, station no. 4 in BK 2 is just walking distance away. There is really no reason to have two stations so close to each other right at our area. It is a waste of tax payers' money.

Realignment of tracks and relocation of station no. 5

If station no. 5 is to be constructed, we think it will be better if it is relocated further down the highway towards IOI direction. That way the station can cater to more passengers from housings like Puchong Jaya, Taman Tenaga and so on, without directly affecting any of the residential areas.

The concern was also recently raised up and reported in several news papers like The Star and Sin Chew daily.

Some residents have in fact met and carried out a dialogue with Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB) regarding our concern. SPNB had also visited our area to understand our problem.

They have promised to restudy the whole thing and give an answer to the residents in a few weeks time. So far however there is still no reply from them.

We certainly hope that SPNB can give us a satisfactory answer. Only then we can ensure BK 3 remain the way it is, a quiet and peaceful neighbourhood. 

At this moment we can only wait with our fingers crossed, praying for the best.