Taman Desa residents up in arms again over construction work

KUALA LUMPUR: Some 90 Taman Desa residents were up in arms again earlier today protesting against the contractors of a condominium project for violating the permitted working hours resulting in lots of inconvenience to them.

During their protest, the residents complained that the loud noise from the ongoing construction work of the towering condominium project 'The Address' had taken a toll on their physical and mental health as well as flouting construction regulations set by the local authority.

A representative of the "Protect Taman Desa" coalition M. Gunasekar said the residents complained that they have been suffering from migraine, insomnia, distress and discomfort owing to the construction work.

"There are times where the contractor was said to have worked until 8.30pm when the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) only allowed the implementation of sub-structure works between 7am and 7pm on Monday - Saturday. The regulations also state that no work on the site should be done on Sundays and public holidays.

"However, that is not the case as residents of Tiara Faber who is adjacent to the construction site had complained of high noise pollution well past 8pm. Additionally, they had also carried out clearing work on Nov 19 which is a Sunday," Gunasekar said.

He then pointed out that although the residents had submitted numerous individual complaints to the DBKL hotline over the noise pollution, all remained futile as by the time DBKL officers respond to the complaints and arrive at the site, work had already stopped.

Gunasekar said the coalition urge city hall to seriously look into their grievances because allowing the contractor to extend their permissible working hours is tantamount to creating further nuisance and annoyance to the surrounding residents who already had to bear with the noise and shock from the construction site during the day.

After the protest, Taman Desa residents handed over a memorandum with 91 signatures to representatives of the project developer Kaisar Maxim and one of its two contractors, Keller (M) Sdn Bhd.

The memorandum lists down 17 conditions for Kaisar Maxim and Keller to adhere to, failing which the Taman Desa residents said they would apply for a stop work order.