Prasarana applauds MBPJ for promoting TOD

Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) has applauded the initiative of the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) in the city.

Prasarana Group Managing Director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar said the initiative blends well with the group’s aspiration to encourage more people to ride the urban public transport to fulfill their commuting needs.

He said Prasarana is willing to work with MBPJ in developing the city’s TOD sites that are near the LRT stations to ensure that the transit-oriented community (TOC) concept will succeed in Petaling Jaya.

“TOD will be less effective unless the community favours urban public transport in their commuting. This is where city councils like the MBPJ as the authority and law enforcer, can assume a more prominent role to promote TOC,” he said in a statement.

Shahril also lauded the city council’s plan to build Park-and-Ride (PnR) facilities within Petaling Jaya to encourage more commuters to take the urban public transport in their daily travelling routines.

“Such facilities can reduce the number of private cars entering cities and towns which have been the main cause of traffic congestions in the Klang Valley.

“We are an advocate of TOD where our awarded mix-used developments have been emphasized to incorporate the 6 D’s of sustainable TOD such as destination, design, density, distance, diversity and demand management.

“Our LRT Line Extension Project (LEP) emphasizes this concept so that the project will bring greater economic benefits to the areas where it passes through,” he said.

To date, Prasarana has awarded a number of mix-used developments at its rail stations such as the Dang Wangi LRT Station, Tun Sambanthan Monorail Station and Ara Damansara (new line extension) LRT Station.

The LEP is the government’s initiative to further expand the coverage of the existing Ampang and Kelana Jaya LRT Lines. Under the project, the Ampang Line will be extended by 17.7km, while the Kelana Jaya Line by 17km.

Both line extensions will weave through commercial and residential areas in towns including Lembah Subang, Subang Jaya, Bandar Kinrara, Puchong and Putra Heights thus allowing more people to ride on the benefits of the LRT.

Petaling Jaya Mayor Datin Paduka Alinah Ahmad recently announced MBPJ had identified 16 TOD sites to be developed around rail stations in the city.

The proposed TOD sites are areas within the stations of mass rapid transit (MRT), LRT and KTM Komuter.

It was reported that the council had set aside RM10 million to acquire a 19ha plot within 400 metres of the Kelana Jaya, Taman Bahagia, Taman Paramount and Asia Jaya LRT stations to build a PnR facility.