By FAZLEENA AZIZ
fazleena@thestar.com.my | May 26, 2011
Noise pollution arising from the mass rapid transit (MRT) project was the number one concern raised by residents of Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, at their meeting with Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) and Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) recently.
The residents felt the MRT would add to the level of noise in their neighbourhood. The closest distance between the MRT tracks and the houses is said to be about 14m.
Residents living in Pinggir Zaaba were especially frustrated because they already had to live with noise pollution from the three-tiered roads in their area.
The meeting was held to brief the residents on the proposed MRT project which would run through the area.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Institute of Noise and Vibration Professor Dr Mohd Salman Leong was present at the meeting to
address issues relating to noise pollution.
Salman said the noise level would not be worse than the existing situation.
However, his assurances did not go down well with the residents.
They claimed that they have been putting up with the negative effects of all the development around their area and the proposed construction of the MRT would be an additional bane.
Prasarana group director of project development division Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff briefed the residents on the provisional TTDI station.
He said the station has been brought forward 150m towards the TTDI wet market.
“We have received lots of feedback on the station especially on traffic congestion, so we are
trying to make it provisional, which means it will be built at a later date.
He said 7,000 feedbacks have been received over the past three months and they were summarising the views before the making a final decision.
A few changes have already been done to the proposed alignment.
The total length of the rail line is 51km, out of which 41.5km is elevated and 9.5km underground.
The MRT line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang will begin service in 2017, through 35 stations.
The line will pass through the city centre and will serve areas including Kota Damansara, Mutiara Damansara, Bandar Utama, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Bukit Damansara, Cheras, Bandar Tun Hussein Onn and Balakong.
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