Ara Damansara

We wish all residents in Ara Damansara and our friends and acquaintances near and far, a very Happy New Year.

May all your wishes come true!

Users of the Tropicana link are generally an impatient lot. More so if they are heading towards Bandar Utama. There is a U turn near Menara Lien Hoe but it’s a few hundred metres away. During peak hours, the queue is long and a ten to fifteen minutes wait is not unusual. Sometimes, extra cautious drivers made things worst as they will make the turn only when the road is empty. If they see the shadow of a car which is still many seconds away, they will wait. And they will move the car only after the car has long passed. All it takes is just a handful of such drivers and you have the compound effect of seconds running into minutes.

The extra distance and the long waiting time has thus enticed many drivers to take a short cut at the T-junction near the Tropicana main entrance. They know it’s illegal but the advantage is hard to resist. Occasionally, they do find themselves caught as they are waved down just before the tunnel. Our man in uniform are smart and when they see an opportunity to enforce the law, they do.

Another reason users are reluctant to use the U turn is the timing of the traffic lights. At a T-junction, there are three group of road users and the lights will change in a round robin fashion. Common sense will tell us that the largest group of users should be given a bigger allocation. This is to ensure there is no bottleneck. For some reasons, this is not the case here and one group of users seems to be given more time than required. This has created a problem at this junction when two group of users are always kept waiting when there is hardly any traffic for the 3rd group of users. During peak hours, a very long queue can be seen stretching more than half a kilometer away and complaints to MBPJ seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

One community staying near by has been asking for a right turn so that users of the Tropicana link at the end of this road can make a right turn towards the tunnel. We were told there were resistance from another influential community in the area and thus the request has been gathering dust in the MBPJ office. Several months ago, the request was made again in a meeting with the local councillor and MBPJ and MBPJ’s engineering department has confirmed there is no technical reasons why the request should be turned down.

Persistence finally pays off and the request has now been granted. Work has started a few weeks ago and it is almost ready just waiting for the road to be re-surfaced and the traffic lights re-calibrated. It should be ready in a few weeks time, hopefully before the Chinese New Year.

We hope the re-calibration will be done fairly so that all road users have their fair share of time based on traffic volumes. In addition, we hope MBPJ will also re-calibrate the two traffic lights further down the road heading towards Kota Damansara. They are causing unnecessary stoppages as there is hardly any traffic exiting from the neighbourhood.

Merry Christmas to all Christian residents in this neighbourhood.

To all others, have a good holiday break!

Source: Star Dec 20

RESIDENTS in Kelana Jaya will face a traffic dilemma come end of March when the mixed development project Paradigm officially opens its doors.

“Right now, we enter and exit our residential area through Jalan SS7/26.

“Once the development is completed, it will be changed to one-way and the road will only allow cars to come in to SS7 from the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP).

“Cars going out of the area will have to use the other exit near the Kelana Jaya Medical Centre,” said Kelana Indah Residents Association chairman Dr S. Vignes.

Dr Vignes and representatives from several condominiums in the area recently called for a press conference at the site to highlight their problem.

The Paradigm development consisting of a shopping centre and three blocks of office towers, is located along the LDP in Kelana Jaya, just opposite the Giant hypermarket.

Dr Vignes said a new tunnel had been built for cars coming out of Paradigm and the surrounding houses to get to the opposite side of the LDP without a need to wait at the traffic light.

“Besides Kelana Indah, there are also many condominiums and offices such as Sterling, Kelana Putri, Kelana Putra, Tiara Kelana and Kelana Square. These residents and office workers use Jalan SS7/26 to get onto the LDP,” he said.

Residents foresee a bottleneck at the exit just outside of the Giant Hypermarket because traffic from the tunnel, the Shell petrol station and from another new development Tarragon will all be merging into a one-lane service road that was dedicated to cars from the LDP turning into the hypermarket and the SS6 area.

Federation of SS7 Residents’ Associations (G7) committee member Francis Koh said in view of that situation, traffic would be backlogged into Paradigm and SS7 especially during peak hours.

“We are already experiencing bad congestion during peak hours now. Imagine how bad it is going to get with more cars expected to come from these development,” said Koh.

Dr Vignes said the developer was supposed to widen the road which connected the tunnel to the LDP, but the land at the edge of Giant’s car park had not been acquired for that purpose.

“We were told that the land belongs to the EPF (Employees Provident Fund) and not Giant.

“The EPF needs to get approval from their contributors before they can sell the land.

“There have been meetings with the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), Litrak and the Malaysian Highway Authority but we have not heard any decision being made on the land acquisition, even though the mall is expected to open in three months,” he said.

Paradigm project manager Kuek Yong Huei from Jelas Puri Sdn Bhd said they were committed to widening the road but would not be able to do so until the 420sqm plot of land had been acquired.

There have been meetings conducted with various authorities in April, June and November and the EPF now requires an official request to acquire the land.

Dr Vignes said as long as the authorities stall on the land acquisition submission, the EPF would not be able to process the request and the road widening would be delayed. This in turn, would cause a major inconvenience to residents.

Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne said he would call for a meeting with MBPJ to find out which authority should submit the application to acquire the land from EPF.

“They should then proceed with the application process so the land can be acquired and the road widened,” he said.

Dr Vignes said while the land issue was being sorted out, residents want the Jalan SS7/26 exit to remain two-way.

“If they make the road one-way before the tunnel bottleneck is addressed, we will have a nightmare trying to get out of this area,” he said.

Artist impression of proposed fencing at Ara Impian

Ara Impian is a collection of four neighbourhoods in the old phase of Ara Damansara namely Chelmsford, Palemo, Calarossa and Berkeley. Chelmsford is the smallest neighbourhood with less than 50 houses but collectively, they are a medium size community with a total of about 400 houses.

All four neighbourhoods share a common entrance today but an outsider will find it a bit strange there are three separate guard houses: one each for Palemo, Calarossa and Berkeley.

In terms of security, Berkeley is the current leader. She is the first in this community to create a gated and guarded neighbourhood following the footsteps of Attilia and Alissia community.

It is not easy to create a gated and guarded neighbourhood. There are differing opinions and almost everyone wants a say. It takes a lot of time and sacrifices of the volunteers to plan, engage, arbitrate and finally to gain consensus. Even then, it will not be 100%.

Recently, all residents in Ara Impian were invited for a potluck gathering. Many may know their immediate neighbours or someone across the streets. Unless you share some common grounds like both your kids go to the same school, it is quite unlikely you will know someone staying in another neighbourhood. So this event creates an opportunity to make new friends and extend your social network.

The residents came with a variety of food mostly home cooked but some took the convenience to order some fast food. There were games too for the children and their laughter were evidence they had a great time.

The highlights of the night was the announcement of a proposal to unite the community with a grand security plan. The proposal is for a gated and guarded community for Ara Impian. The fence will start from the border with the Semi-D neighbourhood with a common guard house at the common entrance and continuing along 1A/20 facing the Chelmsford neighbourhood. It then turns right following the big monsoon drain and joins up with the existing fencing at Berkeley.

With this grand plan, part of Berkeley’s fencing will become redundant. But not to worry, the plan was to dismantle the redundant stretches and to re-use them.

Now, the challenging part. It will take many more weeks and perhaps months before the project is confirmed. Don’t be surprised some residents will simply not participate. Some others may just pay lip service and will come up with a thousand reasons not to pay. The success or failure will hinge on the supporters, many share the belief it’s a small price to pay for a secured environment for themselves and their family. What’s the point of working hard to earn a living and then living in fear that you or your family members may be the next robbery victim?

When this project do get the mandate to proceed, it will represent a huge achievement: a community who is willing to come together putting aside their personal agenda and differences to create a more secured neighbourhood. Less obvious is this project complements another neighbourhood next door, the Semi-D community which is already gated and guarded. Together, they form a tightly controlled zone covering more than 500 houses with two round-the-clock manned entrance equipped with security cameras.

The vision of a safe and secured neighbourhood for all residents at Ara Impian is enough to give this project your support. I can’t think of a good reason why it shouldn’t.

What’s your view?

Source: Star Dec 2

HOUSEHOLDS in Petaling Jaya might end up being charged for disposing of garden refuse if the working paper being prepared by the Petaling Jaya City Council’s (MBPJ) Health Department gets the nod at its sub-committee meeting to be held soon.

Councillor Ahmad Yusof Ludin has called upon the MBPJ to charge ratepayers for the collection of garden refuse.

“Recently, we have noticed that residents just choose to dump the tree trunks, branches and leaves on the road side.

“Our contractors are forced to pick up the waste and the council has to fork out the money to pay for the collection,” he said at MBPJ’s full board meeting.

MBPJ has 10 contractors to collect garden waste in Petaling Jaya.

Another councillor, Muzammil Hafiz, supported Ahmad Yusof’s proposal for charges to be enforced.

“In the past, Alam Flora used to charge for the collection of waste from the residents compound but now it is free.

“We have to discuss the matter thoroughly to ensure a mechanism is in place,” he said.

Later, mayor Datuk Mohammad Roslan Sakiman told pressmen that the council collected between 170 and 200 tonnes of garden waste month.

“We pay the contractors RM240 for a tonne of waste collected.

“At this moment we have not decided to charge but we will impose a charge to maintain some kind of control on how the waste is to be disposed of,” he added.

Source: the Sun 23 Nov

I GET anxious every time it’s my turn to move at the t-junction on Jalan PJU 1a/46, that connects Kelana Jaya, Ara Damansara and Subang, located between Symphony House Bhd and the RapidKL headquarters. Although it is obvious that priority has to be given to those turning from the main road, this is impossible since the other four directions need to wait for a ridiculous amount of time, and sometimes a little give and take could make the traffic even worse.

A few times last month, traffic police were seen directing traffic, but since then, they are no more in sight and the congestion goes on as usual. What is more worrying is that primary school children from SK PPR Lembah Subang who walk to and from school use the same road. Is the Petaling Jaya City Council waiting for a child to be hit before traffic lights are put up? Why can’t a bridge be built behind the school that connects to the PPR flats so that children can walk safely to and from there? I don’t have a child but I think this is public awareness. It is not hard to notice the poor system.

I just hope the needful can be done quickly. Please do something

Nurul Shuhadah

The Casarina Residents Association organized a very successful Family Day Gathering for its residents on 12-Nov-2011. More than 200 residents attended the party.

Support of the residents towards the function was tremendous. Many contributed cash, food, drinks, music and services. Food and drinks were ample. Some residents brought home prepared food.

The gathering was held in the Casarina neighborhood. Because of the rainy season, 6 big tents were erected to house the event. However, the weather co-operated to make it problem free.

The residents had an enjoyable time meeting up and catching up with neighbors. The kids were entertained to an hour long show by funny man Mr John. Based on their responses and laughter, they had an awesome time.

Pic by Wong & Lee

Three accidents in one week at the same junction! Isn’t this one too many?

Last Tuesday evening, a car collided with a motorcyclist. The car was badly damaged with a big depression on the windscreen. The motorcyclist was lucky to be alive as no helmet was seen. He had a large wound at the back of his head but was conscious. The traffic lights was working so it had to be the driver or the cyclist.

Monday morning, an MPV rammed into a sedan. The driver’s door was badly damaged. The traffic lights was out. So it had to be the carelessness of the drivers.

Yesterday afternoon, a taxi knocked down the traffic pole and landed on the divider. Next to it was a sedan. The traffic lights was out. The road was wet and it was still drizzling. Blame the drivers?

Most of the time, the drivers are at fault. They should have known the lights are not working so it is common sense to be extra careful. It is better to be safe than sorry.

But putting the blame fully on the drivers is a little bit unfair. There are the other culprits too: the faulty lights, the slippery roads, the darkened streets, the apathy of the authorities and perhaps the devil too.

Many complaints were filed with MBPJ on the faulty traffic lights. We hardly see Mr Amber at work and worst Mr Red is often in a hurry showing up before the number is called. MBPJ, as the local authority is responsible but the residents complaints are like a pile of discarded papers stored in a junk yard. Our area councillor, Encik Khairul promised to look at our problems but days and weeks have come and gone. He probably was stationed in NATO before.

We complained on the street lamps many moons ago. We were given various excuses: it was an act of vandalism; we are not responsible for that street, MBPJ is. Despite the excuses, our developer, SDP assured us actions would be taken. They did but only after much delays and many trials and errors: the lights came on one night but disappeared the next or only alternate lamps were lighted up.

And now, the lights have gone away for Christmas holiday. The latest excuse: two bills amounting to more than RM150K have not been settled. So Mr Tenaga said: “Enough is enough!, Potong! Potong!”. The perplexing part is why only these two streets; why not the rest? Even for these two streets, why only half of them?

Seri Pilmoor is the premier G&G community in this neighbourhood. But the road next to it is a river of mud. This problem has been there for months and after every downpour, they send a team to clean up the mess. But why not fix the problem once and for all? Who is responsible for this mess?

Sewerage is pouring from a manhole along the main road and also from two manholes inside the Semi-D compound. The manhole cover is now dislocated and it’s a death trap. Who is responsible?

So who is at fault? our developer, Sime Darby Property? MBPJ? our councillor? Or the drivers?

You tell me.

Pic by Wong

Isn’t it strange how every year at this time, the traffic lights at the junction of PJU 1A/3 – PJU 1A/20 goes off?  I remember clearly last year it was November as well and it did not get fixed for 3 weeks.  I wonder how many accidents occurred at that junction.

This year, the problem is compounded by the off street lights north of that junction along the Seri Pilmoor bungalows.  I’ve just returned from my morning walk, and I was not surprised to see an accident had just happened.

Anyway, I’ve called MBPJ and they told me the faulty lights have already been reported.  But the interesting thing is that the staff said the traffic lights/road has yet to be handed over to MBPJ.  Say what?  I wonder if the roads are only going to be handed over to MBPJ after the completion of Seri Pilmoor.