Works Minister S Samy Vellu today refuted claims by a group of residents from Sri Petaling that construction work on the Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya highway is damaging their houses.

According to him, the method employed is 'hand dug caisson' where no heavy machinery is used at the site in order to avoid pollution and disturbance to the neighbourhood.

"We had inspected and assessed the affected houses and it appeared that the cracks were on extension parts of the houses only and not the original structures," he told a press conference in Parliament.

"Further investigations showed that the extensions of the houses were carried out on filled ground more than six metres (above) the road level," he added.

He noted that an extensive external dilapidation survey had been carried out at the residential area adjacent to the highway before construction work started and the survey had recorded several existing cracks in some of the houses.

The minister also said that crack monitoring gauges were installed in seven houses along Jalan 2/149K.

Complies with regulations

Samy Vellu also denied claims that the RM1.3 billion elevated highway project had failed to comply with regulations.

Residents claimed that the highway is sited only 2.3m away from their houses.

According to the minister, it has adhered to the guidelines from the Public Works Department (PWD), Malaysian Highway Authority and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

The city hall's setback requirement is to provide a minimum clear zone of 2.3m from the property line of the residential houses to the outer parapet edge of the elevated structures.

Contacted for comment, residents' spokesperson Lau Kien Foh said he was sad as the minister "did not seem to understand the issue".

He stressed the extensions to the houses were not illegal structures but built in accordance to guidelines and approved by the authorities.

"If they did not start the project, definitely there would not be any cracks," Lau told malaysiakini.

On the 'hand dug caisson', he explained that the method to dig into the water level and then to suck the water out has caused it to move to lower ground.

"As a result, there is soil movement downwards and the houses built on high land will definitely be affected," he said.

Protest outside Parliament

Lau said the residents will call a press conference soon to respond to Samy Vellu's statement today.

Yesterday, some 100 affected residents staged a protest outside the Parliament building and handed a memorandum to Samy Vellu.

They also invited ministers to spend a night in their houses to experience how it feels to live next to a construction site.

The issue in contention is package 5 of the project which starts from Salak South Garden passing through residential areas in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling and ends in Bukit Jalil.

The approximately 1.25km stretch in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling will be an elevated structure to be built on the existing road, Jalan 2/149.