PETALING JAYA (Nov 16, 2009) : The sudden closure of Jalan Tanjung in Bandar Utama here today, caught residents by surprise, leading to a protest mounted by about 100 representatives from 19 Residents Associations (RAs) this evening.

Jalan Tanjung at Bandar Utama road close

The protest was one of four decisions reached at an hour-long meeting among about 50 representatives of the RAs following the closure of the road by Bandar Utama City Corporation (BUCC) early in the morning.

The group also decided to:

>> lodge a police report against BUCC for barricading part of the road that is public property;

>> consider seeking a court injunction against BUCC; and

>> confirming with the mentri besar whether he and the state executive councillors will be meeting with representastives of the RAs on Thursday.

Action Group Against The Closure of Jalan Tanjung, Bandar Utama chairman Mohd Shukri Zain said: "BUCC only owns 800m of the road but they barricaded more than that."

He said part of the land where the barriers were placed -- where the i-Tech building was located -- did not belong to BUCC and was public property.

Mohd Shukri, who is also the Tropicana RA vice-president, said the closure of the road "during the wee hours of the morning" caught many residents by surprise.

"I was informed by a Tropicana resident at 1am that the road closure had been enforced despite BUCC saying the closure will only be enforced on Friday," he said.

"I went to the site at 2 am and found several plastic and concrete barriers put up in front of the entrance to Jalan Tanjung near the traffic lights and also near the i-Tech building."

Mohd Shukri said the barricading of the road had inconvenienced many residents and created a massive traffic jam.

He also said he would be calling Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim tomorrow to ascertain if there would be a meeting between him, the Selangor state executive councillors and representatives of the RAs on Thursday "as said by Bukit Lanjan assemblyman and exco member Elizabeth Wong.

One of the representatives of the RAs had reported receiving a message from Wong asking them to stay calm and "not do anything rash" as a meeting was being arranged for Thursday.

 According to the representative, the message indicated the state government may consider acquiring the land in question from BUCC.

Last Tuesday, Mohd Shukri led a 19-man delegation to hand over a petition to Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) urging it and the state government to intervene and stop the closure of Jalan Tanjung.

Residents stage a peaceful protest at the barricade.

The petition, received by deputy mayor Puasa Md Taib, contained 11,000 signatures, including those from the officials of 19 residents associations, a school, and commercial managements in the affected areas of Tropicana, Kota Damansara and Sunway Damansara, covering some 20 housing estates.

The next day, Puasa announced that the council would write to BUCC to postpone its decision to close down the ungazetted road until a more viable solution was found.

BUCC ran an advertisement in an English language daily today to explain its side of the story.

It had also put up notices to inform motorists that the ungazetted Jalan Tanjung would be turned into a one-way street on Friday and closed for good six months later.

Shukri also denied a claim that the RAs "reneged on the agreed agreement" supposedly reached after a series of meetings held with Wong, MBPJ officers and councillors.

"We did not agree on the decision to make Jalan Tanjung a one-way street, except for the Bandar Utama representatives who were present," he said, adding that the RAs had the minutes to prove it.

BUCC had, in 1993, signed an agreement allowing Dijaya Corporation (Dijaya) to use the land temporarily to access areas for Tropicana development.