Is SMART Tunnel doing what it is supposed to or do we need another one?

The recent heavy rainfall happening around Malaysia has caused much concerns for residents all over the country. States are experiencing heavier rainfall than before and some are even plagued with floods that have caused much hardship. While it is hard to stop these problems especially with places which are flood-prone, the same cannot be said about Kuala Lumpur where it has one of the most technologically advanced flood mitigation system in the SMART tunnel.

When it was built, the SMART Tunnel was considered to be one of the mega projects which was hugely successful to curb the flood problem that created havoc in the city centre. In fact, it was an architectural wonder having been built in record time although it was very costly. The longest and biggest storm drain project in South-East Asia became the pride of the nation where it managed to solve  the flood water problem then.

All this happened in January 2007. Less than 5 years later, it seems that the SMART tunnel had failed to meet its objective after having spent RM1.9billion for its construction. When there is a heavy rainfall, the SMART tunnel is closed to channel water out of the city and this time around, it seems that no mega project can stop the wrath of nature. This time around, the city’s Jalan Tun Razak and Kampung Baru were flooded and it looked similar to the scenes of the post-SMART tunnel era. In fact, it looked like a stamp mark of how Bangkok was recently and the question is what is SMART doing?

According to SMART, if not for the tunnel, it would have been worse which was caused by the bursting of the banks of Sungai Bunis which then overflowed to the areas which was not covered by the SMART tunnel. Perhaps it is time to seriously look at the SMART tunnel project on whether it is to channel only certain parts of KL or that it is supposed to cover more. Shouldn’t the authorities thought about this before the SMART was put in place, or should the people spend more money to come out with a SMART extension or the likes of a SMART II project?