SUNGAI SIPUT: Developers who plan to build houses near highways should refer their project plans to the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM), said Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu. 

The Works Minister said this was to help LLM determine if sound barriers needed to be put up. He said this to a question from reporters on who was responsible for the construction of sound barriers when a housing project was sited near a highway.  

“We will carry out the construction of sound barriers if we build a highway near an existing housing estate. 

“The people should not blame LLM or highway concessionaires for not building sound barriers if their houses were built 15 years or so after the highway had been constructed. 

“This is not our fault. If they buy a house built near an existing highway, then they must be ready to face the noise,” he said, after closing the seminar Women, Health and Lifestyle at the convention centre here yesterday. 

Sound barriers, he said, could not be built along an entire highway but only at areas which were densely populated. 

“For example, we have built sound barriers along certain stretches of the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) and the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) so that those staying close to them are not affected by the noise.”