River view from KL River City (Gombak River)

Ekovest drives Sentul’s transformation with KL River City, Duke Highway and Park & Ride facilities.

By Mak Kum Shi makks@thestar.com.my

Excellence in connectivity, amenities and living environment are characteristics that are fast emerging in Sentul. This transformation is being spearheaded by Ekovest through its Duke Highway and KL River City development.

Duke Highway is expected to contribute to the development of the KL City Bypass. Once completed, the KL City Bypass should enhance connectivity between KL City and the rest of the Klang Valley.

What makes this KL City Bypass unique is that an independent study has identified ten locations where integrated Park & Ride Facilities on top of, beside or under the expressway will help alleviate traffic flow into KL city centre.

Each Park & Ride station is expected to have approximately 2,000 parking bays and shall be constructed next to public transportation systems such as KTM Komuter, Monorail, LRT and MRT lines and stations.

Motorists would not have to get out of the KL City Bypass and go through traffic crawls on local roads to get to these stations.

The development of the Duke Highway is expected to enhance connectivity and contribute to development throughout Northern KL, covering neighbourhoods such as Bandar Sri Damansara, Kepong, Mont Kiara, Bandar Baru Sentul, Setapak, Gombak, Batu Caves, Wangsa Maju, Ukay Heights and KL City Centre.

The focal integration point for connectivity to all these neighbourhoods appears to converge at the Duke Highway’s Sentul Pasar interchange. This location is worth noting because it is the intersection where the Duke Highway, an elevated Park & Ride station, and the KL River City meet.

Raising living standards

The KL River City, with EkoGateway, EkoQuay, EkoTitiwangsa and EkoRiver Centre being its components, is nothing short of extraordinary in development standards. It uses the Gombak River Enhancement and Tunnel (GREAT) system, the first-of-its-kind globally, to mitigate floods without pumping costs.

The concept of GREAT system is similar to the famous San Antonio river tunnel, whereby a flood tunnel is constructed for flood bypass within the river corridor itself. On top of the flood tunnel, a river channel is created to convey the normal flows from Gombak River upstream by gravity flow. This saves space and does not incur pumping costs.

When floods occur, the flood flow will be diverted automatically into the inlet structure of the flood tunnel through a low overflow weir.

With Gombak River being 10-15 metres wide, there will be sufficient space for various recreational activities, landscapes, jogging and cycling paths, infrastructures and interceptor system. All these factors will contribute for a better quality of life for residents in the neighbourhood and efforts in transforming Kuala Lumpur to become one of the top 20 most liveable cities in the world.

Ekovest Bhd managing director Datuk Seri Lim Keng Cheng said, “First, we create the ambience. Second, we solve the flooding resulting from downstream flood water. Finally, we enhance property development, while connecting both sides of community.”

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