By Reports by CHARLES FERNANDEZ, GEETHA KRISHNAN and OH ING YEEN | Dec 29, 2009
Parking woes mar intelligent city
In this second part of our Klang Valley wrap up, we take an indepth look at pivotal events and issues.
IN Cyberjaya, the year started off on a rather negative note with motorists crying foul when the Sepang Municipal Council (MPSp) came down hard on haphazard parking of vehicles along road shoulders.
The tough action came into effect on Jan 1 when MPSp decided that something has to be done to control street parking in Cyberjaya which has gone completely out of control as irresponsible motorists parked their vehicles just about everywhere.
The problem of haphazard parking in this intelligent city is blamed on insufficient parking bays as well as poor and inefficient public transport services.
However, Cyberview Sdn Bhd, the landowners of Cyberjaya dismissed the claims, saying there were enough parking bays and with the improved Park-&-Ride (P&R) services, there is no excuse for motorists to park their vehicles along the roads.
And in January alone, 128 vehicles were towed to the MPSp storage yard at Persiaran Semarak Api in Cyberjaya.
Residents felt that since the authorities had not provided enough proper parking spaces, the harsh enforcement was not the most appropriate solution.
Some residents had urged the authorities to introduce metered parking lots along designated roads as they felt this would help alleviate parking woes.
MPSp introduced the new parking system in April and beginning from May 1, motorists who still parked haphazardly faced the risk of having their vehicles clamped or towed away.
Although the P&D system has proven to be effective, others, especially foreigners, had said that the council, with the new system, was making a mockery of Cyberjaya’s intelligent city status.
Cyberjaya could have been the first truly intelligent city and a model city for other local councils to follow but MPSp had other ideas as far as parking is concerned.
MPSp immediately came to its defence and claimed that the metered parking system implemented by operators Suasa Efektif Sdn Bhd is not a permanent feature but a temporary solution which would be phased out eventually. No time-frame was given.
Meanwhile in Dengkil, it has been a long nightmare for 400 families of five blocks of five-storey walk-up flats at Taman Permata.
Since their relocation from their estate homes 10 years ago to make way for the development of the federal administrative capital of Putrajaya, life has been miserable in wretched conditions that are more deplorable than what they had experienced as estate workers.
The former labourers of the Sedgeley, Medingly, Prang Besar and Golloway estates had been complaining since the days of the late former Selangor executive councillor Datuk K. Sivalingam, but until today nothing has changed.
Over at Jenderam Hilir in Dengkil, a large tract of land in the area would have been lost due to illegal sand-mining if not for the timely information by the local community there while there was good news for swiftlet farmers in Sepang.
MPSp, which had stopped issuing permits for swiftlet breeding, has directed the breeders to move 40km away from KLIA as there have been cases of birds getting sucked into the engines when they fly too close to the aircraft.
Now, the swiftlet farms can stay put as there is no proof these birds get sucked into aircraft engines. The Sepang Swiftlets Merchants Association (SSMA) had argued that the birds which get entangled in the aircraft engines are not swiftlets and thus there is no basis for the swiftlet farmers to relocate.
Meanwhile, enough has been written on the desolate state of the Paya Indah Wetlands Sanctuary (PIWS) in Dengkil.
The wetlands remains a white elephant despite massive upgrading and more needs to be done to keep the PISW appealing and meet its objective of being a tourist attraction.
There were several relaunches but none seem to have the desired effect of drawing the crowd.
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