TTDI folk seek PM’s help against MRT

Residents in Pinggir Zaaba say the construction noise is too much and things will get worse when the trains start running.

KUALA LUMPUR: Residents of Pinggir Zaaba in Taman Tun Dr Ismail demonstrated outside their homes today, but their yells of protest were no match against the noise of machines employed in constructing the MRT line that will run through their neighbourhood.

The 20-odd residents and some of their children also held out placards bearing messages such as these: Save Pinggir Zaaba, Noise and Vibration Drive Us Crazy, PM Please Hear Our Plea.

Their spokesman, 68-year-old Mokhtar Abdul Karim, pointed at a piling machine and told FMT: “This is only half of the noise. It will get louder as they dig deeper.”

It is not only the noise that the residents are complaining about. They are also worried that their homes would be damaged by the vibrations from the construction activity and from the trains when they start running.

“Already, three autogates in the neighbourhood have stopped working because they have been derailed,” said resident Saiful Azhar Rosly.

He fears that cracks will soon appear on the walls of their homes.

The residents have the support of Segambut BN chairman Jayanthi Devi Balaguru of Gerakan.

“This issue must be reconsidered seriously,” she said at a press conference today. “The government and MRT Corp can’t just shove this down these people’s throats. Their complaints have basis.”

She promised to seek a meeting with the prime minister to bring up the residents’ case.

Since January 2011, the residents have met several times with representatives of SPAD, MRT Corp and Prasarana. According to them, these meetings had not yielded any concrete result.

Furthermore, they added, talk of compensation seemed to have fizzled out.

Realign the track

Resident Ho Lee Yoke said that MRT CEO Azhar Abdul Hamid appeared to have broken his promises.

“The best thing to do is to realign the track,” he said. “But if we can’t get that, at least they should compensate us. But now it seems even that is not the case. We feel cheated.”

Ho said the residents were considering legal action but were hoping that the issue could be resolved amicably without involving the courts.

The residents have proposed to MRT that it move the line so that it would run above the LDP highway.

According to resident K Singarayar, some houses are as close as 30 metres to the construction site. Soon, he said, the construction would move to no more than 14 metres from some houses.

“That means we’ll wake up every morning to say, ‘Good morning, MRT.’ That’s an unacceptable way to live.”

MRT Corp told FMT it would respond to queries on the matter by email.