IT will take a year before Jalan Batang Kali-Genting in Hulu Selangor can be reopened to motorists, after a landslide that claimed 24 lives adjacent to the road, the Works Ministry said.

Ministry secretary-general Wan Ahmad Uzir Wan Sulaiman said it needed time to carry out repairs on the affected slopes and roads.

He said the Public Works Department will announce alternative routes for motorists soon.

“Although the road is fine, we cannot risk opening it to the public until a new slope is made. This could take around a year,” he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times today.

Wan Ahmad Uzir said the landslide was not necessarily caused by road works in the area, and that natural causes could be responsible as underground flow of water was detected.

“It also wasn’t triggered by illegal diversion of water sources from the campsite,” he said in the report.

In the incident last Friday at about 2.42am, a landslide measuring nearly 300m long and 70m high hit the campsite, located along Jalan Genting-Batang Kali.

The landslide has so far claimed 24 lives with nine victims still missing, while 61 of the 94 victims were rescued. – December 20, 2022.