PETALING JAYA: MRT Corp has hit out at opposition lawmaker Rafizi Ramli for labelling the mammoth railway project as a “bad project”.
In a statement on Saturday, Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT) said that the Pandan MP had not provided any explanation to back his claims.
They said they were disappointed that Rafizi attempted to politicise a project that was clearly benefiting members of the public.
“One of the assertions made with respect to MRT has been around RM40bil which has been described at the ‘original budget’ project.
“We wish to make clear that this figure was derived from a conceptualised proposal back in 2010.
“Therefore it is no longer relevant to be used for comparison with the current project that has been materialised,” said MRT.
MRT said their initial proposal submitted to Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) was changed significantly after the government reviewed and carried out a study on it.
The railway company also stressed that the project is not a privatised project but wholly owned and funded by the government through MRT.
MRT also explained that all tenders for the Sungai Buloh- Kajang (SBK) and the Sungai Buloh- Serdang-Putrajaya(SSP) line were awarded through an open tender system.
“For the proposed MRT3 line, also known as the Circle Line, MRT corp has always stated that the feasibility study for the line was currently being carried out.
“The results are expected to be known in the first quarter of 2017.
“In view of this, it would not have been possible for MRT to give a cost estimate for line 3. Any figure reported would be purely speculative. As such any assertion that MRT corp had announced a figure for the cost of MRT line 3 is absolutely erroneous,” said MRT, adding that 210,000 people have used MRT in the last one week.
Since the launch of the SBK line, Rifizi has hit out at the project, saying that it would add to our national debts.
He had previously made claims that the project cost RM1bil for each kilometre, although MRT said it cost RM21bil for 51km.-thestar
