PETALING JAYA: By April next year, Damansara Damai, Mutiara Damansara and Sri Damansara will have their own police stations and Bandar Utama will have a police beat base near the Centrepoint shopping complex.

This is part of a three-phase programme to expand the police presence in the city and increase security.

The government has allocated RM8 million to rent premises in shophouses for new police stations.

Petaling Jaya police chief Assistant Commissioner Arjunaidi Mohamed said: "We hope to make Petaling Jaya a crime-free city and this building of new stations is a good start."

Yesterday, he and Bukit Lanjan state assemblywoman Datin Paduka Yong Dai Ying performed the ground-breaking for the Bandar Utama beat base, which will be manned by 10 policemen when it is completed.

Bandar Utama Development Sdn Bhd director Datuk Teo Chiang Kok said that while the crime rate in Bandar Utama was low, the residents were pleased there would be a beat base in the neighbourhood.

"The two-storey base will provide the space needed for the police to serve the community.

"The design of the 7,000 square metre base will be the first of its kind in Selangor, perhaps in Malaysia," Teo said.

Bandar Utama Development was spending RM1.5 million on the project, he said.

source: The New Straits Times