By Jose Barrock
The Federal Government is understood to have commissioned a study for a planned 35 kilometre light rail transit (LRT) line touted to cost as much as RM10 billion, linking Kelana Jaya to Port Klang, sources say.
It is understood that Minconsult Sdn Bhd was appointed some two months ago to come up with the alignment, and the company was looking at a detailed report to be ready by October this year.
“It’s dubbed the LRT3…it’s been in the pipeline for some time. Initially, it was slated for development by 2020, but with the heavy traffic, the Government has brought it forward,” a source familiar with the matter told KiniBiz.
It is learnt that top officials of Syarikat Prasarana Negara, which is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance had already more or less obtained the go ahead from the Federal Government for the project.
“There are certain parts of Shah Alam where public transport is very bad. While the KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) Komuter plies certain routes, others are left out. The new line will address these issues,” the source added.
Officials from Minconsult did not want to comment when contacted, as they had a legal obligation of non-disclosure with their client, in this case the Federal Government and its agencies.
According to Minconsult’s website, its transportation division has an impressive resume of “over 70 transport studies for road, rail, airport and port projects, both in Malaysia and internationally, and demonstrates expertise in all types of transportation studies from the national level to traffic impact assessments for development.”
About a week ago, Prasarana’s officials including its group finance director Mohd Zahir Zahur Hussain had told pressmen that Prasarana had hired CIMB Group Holdings, AMMB Holdings, RHB Capital and HSBC Holdings Plc to manage a RM4 billion Islamic debt paper offering for extending its railway line.
It is not known if part of the proceeds could be used for the LRT3.
Prasarana is conducting extensions to its two existing railway lines, the Kelana Jaya Line and the Ampang Line.
The Kelana Jaya extension, slated to run from Lembah Subang to Putra heights via, Kelana Business Centre, USJ and Alam Megah among others, consists of 13 new stations and approximately 17 kilometres.
Meanwhile, the Ampang LRT extension line is being constructed to commence from Sri Petaling station, passing through Puchong, and ending at the hub in Putra Heights, and will consist of 13 new stations and approximately 17.7 kilometres. .
Both lines are likely to be ready by 2014 and collectively cost about RM1.7 billion to construct.
Prasarana for its financial year ended December 2012 suffered an after tax loss of RM776.2 million from RM464.5 million in sales.
As at end last year the company had non-current assets amounting to RM11.2 billion and non-current assets of RM2.5 billion. On the other side of its balance sheet, Prasarana had long term borrowings of RM11.6 billion and short term debt commitments of RM432.1 million.
It is also noteworthy that Prasarana had negative reserves of close to RM3 billion.
Prasarana was incorporated in 1998 by the Ministry of Finance to facilitate, undertake and expedite public infrastructure projects approved by the Government, but ended up taking over failed privatisation projects.
However Prasarana ended up owning the two LRT lines at a cost of almost RM8 billion, after the two ran into financial difficulties.
Star (Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan Sdn Bhd) LRT system which was renamed the Ampang Line cost RM3.3 billion, while the takeover of the Putra (Projek Usahasama Transit Ringan Automatik Sdn Bhd) system renamed the Kelana Jaya Line cost about RM4.5 billion.
Other than the two main LRT lines, Prasarana also controls the Rapid bus transport, when in 2004 it acquired Intrakota from DRB Hicom Bhd for RM124 million.
It is not clear if Prasarana still owns and operates a cable car system in Langkawi, to bring people up Gunung Machinchang.
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