KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Dec 2008: The Public Works Department (PWD) expects to take three months to complete a report on yesterday’s landslide incident in Ulu Yam which claimed two lives.
A spokesman of PWD’s slope engineering division told Bernama that PWD officers had gone to the site today to carry out initial investigations.
He said, among other things, the investigations by a team headed by the slope engineering division, would cover forensic aspect.
The committee, comprising officers from the Department of Survey and Mapping, Mineral and Geoscience Department, Local Government and Housing Ministry, state PWD, state Drainage and Irrigation Department and Hulu Selangor District Council, would hold its first meeting tomorrow.
The matter, however, was not under the Works Ministry but rather, the developer Shah Alam Property, he said.
“The PWD is only instructed to carry out investigations and prepare a report,” he said.
He did not rule out that the persistent rain had caused the landslide.
In the incident early yesterday, Noratirah Roslan, 16, and her sister Nurul Intan Sarina, 9, were buried alive when the slope at the back of their house in Ulu Yam Perdana collapsed and crashed on the house.
Their parents and three other siblings were unhurt in the 5.30am incident.
Meanwhile, an architect at the Hulu Selangor District Council, Abd Wahab Abd Hamid, said the project’s certificate of fitness was approved in 2001 and handed over to the developer in 2003.
“However, the project is still under the developer’s responsibility,” he said, adding that the local authorities had yet to approve other infrastructure development in the housing area. — Bernama
