By Sheeda Fathil
SUBANG JAYA, Jan 16 — Selangor aims to have its first metropolitan city within the next six or seven years, says Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
He said the plan is achievable with the integration of four big cities, namely Subang Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and soon, Klang.
“InsyaAllah (God willing), the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) will be upgraded as a city in a year or two. After that, Selangor would have four connected cities in a state.
“I hope through the integration, we could streamline the administration which would benefit all parties.
“There are several requirements and needs to be met to become a metropolis, such as the total population of its resident, which we could work on to achieve the target,” he said at a press conference after launching the MBSJ Vibrant Community Awards 2022 at Sunway Resort, here last night.
However, Amirudin explained that Klang is facing several challenges that it has to overcome before the local council could change its status.
He said this includes some 30 per cent of the district still being categorised as villages.
“The villages should not hinder the local council from upgrading its status because Subang Jaya also has its village areas in Kampung Tengah, Kampung Bukit Lanchong and Kampung Sri Aman but its development was properly planned.
“In Klang, we could consider some of the villages as traditional villages. Therefore, we hope MPK could execute some improvements, not just by changing the village status to a town but also to upgrade the facilities and services,” he said.
Amirudin had also welcomed the idea of Kuala Lumpur joining Selangor to become a metropolitan city in the future.
“We have bigger cities than Kuala Lumpur and should they want to join us, it is a good move. We can be the biggest Klang Valley,” he said.
