SHAH ALAM, Dec 23 — The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) has implemented four flood mitigation projects costing RM41 million in total, said acting Mayor Cheremi Tarman.
The projects, carried out since December last year, include restoring and constructing drains, trenches, pump houses, and retention ponds, which were implemented in stages.
The areas where the projects are situated include Section 13, Taman Sri Muda, Section U1, and Section 7, which are also frequent flood-prone locations.
“They have been implemented in stages from 2022 until now, and the bidding process was also conducted through an open tender.
“InsyaAllah, we expect the physical projects to be completed by April next year, while consultant studies will continue until early 2025,” he said after MBSA full monthly meeting yesterday.
Cheremi added the council continues maintenance work and 24-hour monitoring via the Shah Alam Integrated Smart Monitoring System Command Centre (Iris).
“A disaster committee has also been established and will be mobilised in the event of emergencies in any of Shah Alam’s areas,” he said.
In early December last year, MBSA introduced the Shah Alam Flood Action Plan (SASuD), which will be implemented in the short term and in phases to reduce flood recurrences.
State executive councillor for infrastructure Izham Hashim said the council is Malaysia’s first local authority to implement an integrated flood mitigation project plan.
Meanwhile, Cheremi said MBSA has successfully managed to collect RM335 million in property taxes by the start of this month.
This has exceeded approximately 100.01 per cent of its targeted annual amount of RM296 million.
“The collected overdue property taxes is RM67.8 million, or 55 per cent, compared to the total overdue target of RM40.6 million,” he said.
Following this, MBSA will intensify business transaction restrictions and court action (i-Sekat) next year against individuals or companies with arrears.
“At present, we have successfully collected RM52 million since i-Sekat was implemented in 2017.
“These arrears include fines for parking, property taxes, licenses, rent, electricity bills, and vacant lot cleaning costs,” Cheremi said.
Separately, he revealed that MBSA has received 27 awards, including the Special Award for the most active local authority in implementing low-carbon initiatives.
“This award was received during the Low Carbon City Awards 2022, recently organised by the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation,” he said.
