KINIBIZ Owners of the highway concessionaire for the proposed Kinrara–Damansara Expressway (Kidex) want to muscle in on the lucrative north-south traffic served by the congested Lebuhraya Damansara–Puchong (LDP) highway.

The 14.9km fully elevated Kidex highway is estimated to cost between RM2.2 billion to RM2.4 billion, Malaysia’s most expensive on a per kilometre basis.

Kidex Sdn Bhd, the highway concessionaire, is positioning Kidex as an alternative to the LDP for a share of the LDP’s enviable pre-tax profit margin of 43% (five-year average).

Tracing, for the most part, the same north-south alignment as the LDP through some of the Petaling Jaya’s most densely populated areas, the concessionaire projects a reduction in traffic volume “by between 15 percent and 30 percent” on alternative routes.

In an interview with radio station BFM yesterday, Kidex Sdn Bhd CEO Mohd Nor Idrus acknowledged the Kidex alignment “is almost parallel and is supposed to complement the LDP.”

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