KUALA LUMPUR: Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) has refuted the opposition’s claims that it needs to acquire land in Bandar Malaysia from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) at inflated prices for the MRT Line 2 project, hence potentially bailing out the debt-laden fund.

Bandar Malaysia is 1MDB’s yet-to-be developed property project, in which the proposed Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line (SSP) line, also called the MRT Line 2 is to pass through.

MRT Corp has come out with a clarification after DAP lawmaker Tony Pua said that the realignment of the SSP line is set to benefit 1MDB as the MRT project company would have to acquire land from it to build the line.

On this, MRT Corp strategic communications and public relations director Amir Mahmood Razak explained that the company will most likely take the mutual agreement route for its SSP line as it did for its Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) line. “The SSP Line is underground at this location and given that the land (Bandar Malaysia) belongs to a government-owned entity (1MDB), it is likely that we will take the approach of the mutual agreement route we took with the SBK Line,” he said in a statement yesterday.

According to previous reports, under the mutual agreement route, landowners would reportedly continue to hold rights to their property provided they agree to vacate the area for six months to facilitate tunnelling work for the project. This means that MRT Corp will not have to acquire land in Bandar Malaysia, but to coexist with it.

“[For instance], the mutual agreement route that we took with properties in Jalan Sultan and Jalan Inai in Kuala Lumpur for the SBK Line saved the government some RM1.4 billion,” said Amir. He said that since the project has not started, there cannot be costs or budget overruns pertaining to the proposed SSP Line.

“The realignment will have a marginally longer underground section, which means less land acquisition.

“Furthermore, there is a reduction of the elevated section by almost 10km, and a reduction of elevated stations. These reductions will offset any additional cost which may result from a marginally longer underground section,” he said.

He also clarified that all proposed alignments of the SSP Line remain as options and have not been finalised. “The alignment can only be finalised after it has gone through the public display exercise, and subsequently approved by the government,” he said.

The new proposed alignment option for the SSP line involves a change in the section between Tun Razak Exchange, which is also a 1MDB development, and Seri Kembangan station, serving Kuchai Lama, Sri Petaling, Sungai Besi and Serdang Raya. An earlier alignment option, instead of passing through the above locations, had covered the Maluri, Pandan, Cheras and Bukit Belimbing areas.

Amir said that the new option was done to enable the SSP Line to integrate with the future Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) terminal.

He said that the new proposed alignment option will not only benefit Bandar Malaysia, but the entire stretch after the new development.

“Between north Sungai Besi and Seri Kembangan, the alignment is proposed to stop at Kuchai Lama, Sri Petaling, Sungai Besi and Serdang Raya. This is a massive catchment for the SSP Line,” he said.

The new option is expected to bring an additional ridership of 16,000 passengers per day compared with the original proposed alignment, and will allow the SSP to be integrated with Chan Sow Lin and Sungai Besi light rail transit (LRT) stations.

“We are of course constrained by funding and capacity in terms of building more lines, but if we can connect to another existing or proposed line earlier, the responsible thing is to find a route to do so.

The additional link to the Sungai Besi LRT station is a bonus as it then expands the urban rail footprint of that particular catchment,” Amir explained. 

The new option will also see a more direct route for commuters from Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and Serdang to Kuala Lumpur, and is seen from the reduction of the expected end-to-end travel times from 100 minutes to 84 minutes.The assertion that this realignment has resulted in a delay for six months was also incorrect, Amir said, adding that construction time for the new option remained the same.

“The only change to the timeline is for the public display, which is now expected to take place in May 2015 instead of March 2015,” he said.

On the issue of the Pandan area being deprived of the MRT, Amir said the area is currently served by the LRT Ampang line.

“As such, the criticality for a rail-based public transport mode there is not as high as that for Kuchai (Lama), Sri Petaling and Serdang Raya. Right now, the KTM Komuter has only one station serving these areas,” he said.

The new option’s integration with the Chan Sow Lin LRT station gives a link to Pandan and Cheras.

Amir added that MRT Corp will be conducting a feasibility study for Line 3 later in 2015 to further improve rail connectivity in Pandan, and this will be submitted to Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat or Spad once completed.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 2, 2015.