SHAH ALAM, Jan 12 — The Selangor Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD) confirmed with the Say No To DASH (SNTD) group that no approval has been given to the Damansara Shah Alam expressway (DASH) concessionaire.

SNTD representative Michelle Wong added that this was despite a news report quoting the concessionaire as saying that a construction company was pre-qualified for the building of the highway.

“We’ve asked about the status of DASH with regards to the approvals and it’s confirmed that no approval has been given by the Selangor government to proceed.

“Despite what’s in the news regarding tenders, JPBD on behalf of the Selangor government said no approval have been given,” she said.

New portal the Star Online reported earlier today that SPAZ Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Seacera Group Bhd, was given two letters by Projek Lintasan Kota Holdings Sdn Bhd’s (Prolintas) unit Turnpike Synergy Sdn Bhd inviting the former to participate in the tender for both the DASH highway as well as for another proposed expressway namely the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (SUKE).

The JPBD refused, however, to meet with the Say No To SUKE representative as the latter was not invited to the hearing held specifically to hear the public’s grouses about the Selangor State Structure Plan 2035.

This was despite the rival Say YES to SUKE group receiving an invitation.

“We were caught by surprise. We did not know. I got no chance to talk to the JPBD, no chance to hear what they had to say or tell them anything,” Fraddy Ong said during the press conference.

This comes after land acquisition notices from the Selangor Land Office for the SUKE were served to residents in Ampang and Cheras months after the expiry of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.

SNTD representative Alvin Chin said that this showed the lack of transparency with which the Selangor government had been operating in relation to both the SUKE and DASH.

“The process in which the meetings are being conducted do not follow the open town hall meetings that the state government held during the preparation for the original Selangor Structure Plan 2020,” he said.

The Say No to SUKE group has opposed the highway since it was first mooted in 2012 due to its potential impact on the residential communities in the area.

Among their concerns were attempts to acquire the land on which a temple, gazetted as a heritage site, sits.

DASH, on the other hand, will be a 20.1km, three-lane, dual carriageway expressway starting from Puncak Perdana in Shah Alam to the Penchala interchange.

With 12 interchanges, the RM11.5 billion expressway plans to link drivers to Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong and Sprint highways, which residents claim are already congested during peak hours.

However residents in Damansara Perdana have opposed the highway’s alignment since 2012 as they claim that the highway encroaches on public facilities in the area.