Council stops Batu Caves cable car project

A Selangor government task force finds that facilities around the temple were built without approval.

PETALING JAYA: The Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) has ordered the Subramaniar temple to stop work on the Batu Caves cable car project that it announced early this year.

Selayang municipal council (MPS) chairman Azizi Mohd Zain told FMT today that the temple authorities had failed to comply with the council’s demand for building plans for facilities built around the temple since the 1980s.

“We have issued the temple committee a stop work order after an independent task force appointed by the state government reported to the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTEN) last month that the buildings in the vicinity of the temple were built without permits,” Azizi said.

“Even the Murugan statue constructed at the foot of the temple steps was placed there without approval.”

The stop-work order on the cable car facilities was prompted by the task force’s findings.

The Subramaniar temple in Batu Caves is a major Hindu spiritual and tourist attraction centre for tens of thousands of people from all over the world during the Thaipusam religious celebration.

Last January, temple committee chairman R Nadarajah announced that a cable car project was planned for the benefit of the elderly and disabled.

He said then that MPS had given the green light and that the project and was scheduled for completion next January.

The project, worth RM10 million, was contracted to the Calcutta-based company Damodar Ropeways and was supposed to take off by March.