Prime Minister visits KL & Kepong & helps with local plan for KL20,31.5.2007.

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw urges the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to ensure that City Hall Kuala Lumpur (CHKL) implements the Kuala Lumpur Structural Plan (KL20), including the local plan and the 190 policy articles.

Dr Tan made this call when the PM visited the CHKL headquarters and officiated the ground-breaking ceremony of the Intan Baiduri People's Flats, Kepong, on 1 June, 2007.

It is appropriate that the PM is concerned with the development of KL. He first visited KL in 1957 for the Merdeka celebrations. He began residing in the city in 1964. He was Deputy Minister for Federal Territory in the 80s, last Century.

There has been rapid development in KL including Kepong. However, there are weaknesses in town planning. For example, Desa Complex is situated at the side of Kepong flyover (MRR2). The 1984 KL Structural Plan appeared to be useless. Hence, in 2004, CHKL drafted and gazetted the KL20 with the objective of making KL a world-class tropical garden city of light. We agree.

KL20 must have local plan. Last year, CHKL said that the local plan would be completed and gazetted by the end of the year.

We hope that after visiting KL, Abdullah would have understood the actual situation of KL20 with its local plan, so that we can attain the objective by 2020.

To prepare for the PM's visit, CHKL worked very hard. For instance, the road diversion for the Flood Mitigation Project at the Jinjang section of the Kepong Road was removed, roads had been resurfaced, drains cleaned, flags, awnings and huge tents were installed at the People's Flats, Intan Baiduri Garden. For over two years, residents at the garden had been complaining of illegal dumpsites. Within a day, the piles of rubbish had been removed. Trees had been planted overnight. Residents saw the efficiency of CHKL. An estimate showed that there were at least 40 large buses, ferrying people from various parts of KL to Intan Baiduri.

On the other hand, complaints about rubbish in other areas such as the Kepong Central Garden and its Block 4 Greenview Apartment have been temporarily ignored.

KL20 contains 190 policy articles for attaining world standard. These include knowledge-based centres for the commercial and industrial sectors, improvement of public transport, upgrading of infrastructure, better quality of housing, beautiful lanscapes at residential, industrial and commercial areas and the revamping of structure to ensure efficiency of planning, coordination and development.

When the new mayor came at the beginning of the year, we reminded him of KL20 and its local plan. Now, we let the PM know in the hope that he will be able to assist us in the implementation of KL20.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw