KL City Hall to spend RM84mil to tackle floods

KUALA LUMPUR: City Hall (DBKL) will allocate RM84.1mil next year to tackle flash floods, Mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail said.

Of the amount, RM10.35mil will be from DBKL, RM10mil from the 10th Malaysia Plan allocation, RM4.25mil from the flood mitigation allocation and RM59.5mil from the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley allocation through the "River of Life" programme which will give a new breath of life to the Klang and Gombak rivers.

"DBKL expects the main challenge for us will be to tackle the flash flood which causes damage to properties and threatens lives," he said when tabling DBKL's 2012 Budget.

He said several plans were being drawn up to tackle the problem especially at Jalan Tun Razak, among them by creating a diversion to divert the water from Sungai Bunus to Titiwangsa Lake before channelling it to Sungai Gombak.

Two retention ponds at Air Panas and Setapak Jaya would also be upgraded at the cost of RM20mil to slow down the flow of waters into Sungai Bunus, he said. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage was preparing a working paper for the purpose.

Ahmad Fuad said DBKL also planned to develop housing areas to address the squatter problem and provide 1,620 units of affordable houses, proposed for construction in Kampung Wira Jaya and Setia Jaya in Setapak, Indian Settlement in Kampung Pandan and Sungai Udang in Segambut.

DBKL will also allocate RM96.75mil to repave 33 main roads over 118.71km as well as public roads and streets with a combined length of about 2,000km.

"This includes repairing roads, drains and dangerous intersections," he said.

By Bernama