KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 31): An opposition lawmaker today alleged that the "sudden" realignment of Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya route for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Line 2 (MRT2) project will only serve to benefit 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

"The last minute realignment is despite the fact that Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) has announced the appointment of Arup Jururunding Sdn Bhd as the underground reference design consultant for the project on Nov 18 last year, in a contract worth RM44.4 million," DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

The Edge weekly had on March 16 reported that the alignment of Line 2 had been tweaked to have a station in Bandar Malaysia near Sungei Besi, where a terminal of the proposed high-speed rail connecting Kuala Lumpur to Singapore will also be built. 1MDB is the master developer for Bandar Malaysia.

In the report, MRT Corp chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar was quoted as saying that the change in alignment of Line 2 was not due to a directive from the top.

Pua said such a move is expected to not only delay the completion of the RM25 billion line, but also incur extra cost for the government.

"According to MMC-Gamuda KVMRT (T) Sdn Bhd, who has been appointed without any tender exercise as the project delivery partner for MRT2, the alignment will entail a delay of three to six months and a potential spike in cost due to longer underground portions.

"These underground portions cost more than four times the surface equivalents, " Pua added.

Pua pointed out that the realignment of MRT2 will benefit 1MDB in two ways.

"Firstly, the fact that the line now passes through Bandar Malaysia, even before a single construction stone is laid on the current military airfield, will clearly help 1MDB raise the value of its land bank significantly. Previous touted at a gross development value of RM20 billion, the figure the real estate development has inflated nearly eight-fold to RM150 billion after the “strategic review” conducted in January this year.

"Secondly, it appears that 1MDB will also immediately benefit because the federal government will need to new acquire land from 1MDB for the purposes of obtaining access for the MRT2 line. If this were to happen, it would be an absolute travesty because 1MDB secured the Bandar Malaysia land, the current Sungai Besi airbase for a paltry RM75 per sq ft," he said.

Given such immense increase in value the MRT2 realignment will give to Bandar Malaysia as well as the heavily discounted price the land was obtained, Pua called on the government not to pay "a single sen to acquire the land for the purposes of the MRT construction".

"To be fair to the residents of Cheras and Pandan who are now denied the MRT, the government should impose a substantial development charge on 1MDB," he suggested.

"The charge will go towards defraying the increase in cost of MRT2 as a result of the realignment, the cost of building the MRT station in Bandar Malaysia as well as to provide alternative public transport solutions for the negatively affected residents," said Pua, noting that the losers in the new realignment "will be the 200,000 middle and lower middle-income earners living in Cheras and Pandan where the original alignment would have passed through".

MRT2 is targeted for completion in 2022, which will run from KLCC to Tun Razak Exchange, pass through Jalan Chan Sow Lin area to Bandar Malaysia, towards Seri Kembangan and Putrajaya. There's isn't much change in the northern portion between Sungai Buloh and KLCC.