Tuesday, June 05, 2007

So SMART the tunnel

Rain in KL is like icing on cake - very normal affair. One would expect floods to happen alot in the city, which is what happened a few years ago when a massive flood occured, most notably a tourist spot - Dataran Merdeka underground carpark was filled with water, causing damages in thousands of ringgit. The cause was said to be overflowing of riverbanks in the city area. So, being Malaysians, rectifying a problem means building something big/tall/deep! Hence, we have the SMART tunnel - Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel - a tunnel which supposedly prevents overspill of flood water from Sg Klang, Sg Ampang, Sg Gombak and ease motor traffic congestion preventing flooding in the city. The tunnel is almost complete and was open to the public for a month in mid May. Here comes the good part. Last Sunday evening, flash floods occured in KL and PJ areas - there were minor landslides and flooding because of blocked drainage causing massive traffic jams all over KL. Now, with SMART tunnel in use, you would think there was a solution in place for drivers in KL. Guessed what? Motorists who decided to use SMART tunnel was caught in a traffic jam for more than 1 hour because the SMART tunnel was flooded! Spending millions of ringgit to build a solution for KL motorists and this is the service we get?! What a waste of road taxes! Authorities explained that the SMART tunnel was designed for floods occuring from overflow of Sg Klang, Sg Ampang, Sg Gombak and does not cater for flash flood from drain blockage (which is what happened last Sunday). Gee, I thought a flood is a flood, there is a difference in types of flood? What's the purpose of spending millions of ringgit if it cant cater for all types of flood? Shouldn't they have done a thorough study of all types of flood that happens in KL before they build SMART tunnel? Samy please explain. Don't blame others like you did in the government building roof leaking issue. Maybe in future, kids will be sent to school just to answer questions so they don't sound dumb. Whilst hundreds of motorists were stuck in the tunnel, it was noticed that there were only 4 huge fans that ventilated the tunnel! This is definitely not up to international standard, without proper ventilation we could all suffocate and die in the SMART tunnel. Now this aint very smart is it. Samy what have you done with the tax payers money? Obviously someone has given some bad advice, someone is benefitting so much that they have cut costs (or they had to cut costs because the money has to be used to for the many layers in the government's system), someone is using innocent KL motorists as guinea pigs during this 1 month trial period of using the SMART tunnel. So the next time you think you're "smart" to use the SMART tunnel, think again. Malaysia boleh!

1 comment:

2Strap said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24BfxA48aT8

smart tunnel leaking!