LIKE A BAD PENNY, FAEKAH SHOWS UP: Selangor MB has no right to cancel Kidex

SHAH ALAM - Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali has no authority to cancel the Kinrara Damandara Expressway (Kidex) project as it is a Federal project and the state only has the power to issue or withhold approval for development order.

Former Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim's political secretary Faekah Hussin said Azmin has used the wrong term in issuing a statement stating that the project has been cancelled and this might open the state to legal suit from Kidex.

"The Selangor state government has no right to cancel Kidex as it is a Federal project and the agreement is signed by Kidex developer and the Federal government.

"The state's responsibility is only to issue or withhold development order for land that is in the state's jurisdiction.

"To say that the project has been scrapped or cancelled might open the state to legal suit from Kidex," she said when contacted by the New Straits Times.

This morning, Azmin in a statement announced that the state has cancelled Kidex after the developer failed to comply to the conditions set by the state government before the Feb 14 deadline.

He said the decision was made because the concessionaire failed to prepare a traffic, social and environmental impact assessment, disclose toll rates during the concession period including all toll increases set out in the concession and reveal the full concession agreement.

"Since they did not comply to any of these conditions before the deadline, the state government hereby announced the cancellation of Kidex.

"The same approach will also be used in considering any application for other expressways proposed to the state government," he said in a statement.

The proposed construction of the 14.9km expressway costing RM2.2 billion which will go through Petaling Jaya and parts of Damansara from its starting point, in Kinrara in the south to Bandar Utama in the north has resulted in vehement protests from Petaling Jaya residents whose homes would affected by its construction. - NST