‘WORK TOGETHER ON FLOODS’
HIGHWAY concessionaire Lingkaran Trans Kota Sdn Bhd (Litrak) is urging more proactive cooperation from other agencies to prevent the recurrence of flash floods in Lebuhraya DamansaraPuchong (LDP).
Its engineering department head, Francisco Anthony Doss, in a recent interview, said a study on actions to prevent the recurrence had garnered no response.
“The immediate and ongoing action is to maintain the drain, but there are certain weaknesses with the drainage system that need to be immediately corrected.”
He said the monsoon drain in front of IOI Mall, Puchong, needed widening. “The 300m-deep monsoon drain can no longer accommodate water from a heavy downpour,” he said, adding that the widening project was supposed to be carried out by Subang Jaya Municipal Council.
He said the existing triple cell culvert was supposed to be converted into a single cell culvert to allow better water flow in the monsoon drain.
“Unlike the triple cell culvert which can block rubbish from going through, a single cell culvert needs less maintenance and there is less tendency for the drain to get clogged,” he said, adding that the project was supposed to be carried out by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.
“We hope the respective parties will carry out what they are supposed to do and a permanent solution will be in place quickly.”
He said the existing interim measures that Litrak had taken was just to minimise the possibility of another flooding.
“One of them is continuous cleaning of drains under our jurisdiction.
“We have, on our own initiative, also put up temporary pumps near the drain to control the water level. When it rains, we will start pumping out the water. Butthis is not a permanent solution.”
He said the pumps were placed immediately after the flash floods occurred on Nov 15 last year.
In the incident, motorists were caught in a gridlock at KM21.4 of the LDP. Similar incidents had also occurred in 2013 and 2015.
Prasarana Malaysia said the triple cell culvert was built decades ago and the LRT Line Extension Project had nothing to do with flash floods in the area.
“However, we have agreed to replace the triple cell culvert with a single cell culvert as part of our corporate social responsibility,” said a spokesman.
“We are still awaiting approval from Litrak and the Malaysian Highway Authority on the replacement of the culvert. We will take further steps to maintain the drains in the area.”