KUALA LUMPUR (July 12): The Pakatan Harapan government has approved the continuation of the light rail transit 3 (LRT3) project at a final cost of RM16.63 billion.

In a statement today, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the final total cost of the LRT3 project is reduced by 47% from RM31.65 billion to RM16.63 bilion, saving Malaysians a total of RM15.02 billion.

He said this will include all project costs, including but not limited to Work Package Contracts (WPC), land acquisition, project management, consultancy fees, operational and overhead costs, as well as interest during construction.

Lim said the 37km Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) project is a critical project meant to alleviate the issue of traffic congestion along one of the most important and densely populated economic development corridors in the Klang Valley, from Klang to Petaling Jaya.

He said the new LRT line is expected to serve a 2-million population with the capacity to transport 36,700 passenger per hour each way.

Lim added that a thorough renegotiation and rationalisation exercise of the LRT3 project was undertaken with all key stakeholders including Prasarana, MRCB-George Kent (M) Bhd joint venture (MRCB-GK JV) who is the Project Delivery Partner (PDP) and Land Public Transportation Commission (SPAD).

“One critical criteria for the review was that the integrity of the 37km LRT3 line from Johan Setia (Klang) to Bandar Utama (Petaling Jaya) must be maintained.

“In addition, the safety, frequency and quality of service must meet the requirements of the regulators,” he said.

Lim said that in addition, the construction of the LRT3 project will be restructured from a PDP model to a “fixed price contract” with MRCB-GK JV.

He said this will ensure that the price will be fixed and will not be subject to cost overruns.

“The details of this contract will be disclosed at a later stage.

“The savings of more than RM15 billion would not only mean a massive reduction of RM15 billion in debt to be incurred, but also result in additional savings to the tax-payers of up to RM14 billion in interest cost over the period of the loan financing,” he said.