Rajiv for Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — A local transport advocacy group has questioned the wisdom of committing up to RM50 billion into the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project without waiting for a public transport masterplan that will only be completed at the end of this month.

The Association For The Improvement Of Mass Transit (Transit) told The Malaysian Insiderthat this has tied the hands of transport authorities to the project instead of alternatives such as a bus rapid transit (BRT).

“We’ve put the cart before the horse as we’ve already decided we want to have the largest-ever infrastructure project, got the alignment and public feedback done and giving out contracts but nobody really knows what the big picture plan is,” said its spokesman Rajiv Rishyakaran.

Rajiv, who is representing the group while its chairman Muhammad Zulkarnain Hamzah is in Canada pursuing further studies, cited the Light Rail Transit (LRT) as a warning of the pitfalls of going ahead without a blueprint.

“Now more than a decade later they are extending it for RM7 billion,” he said of the two LRT lines which had cost an initial RM5.5 billion but continues to see low traffic at several stations.

The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) had begun drafting a national public transport masterplan in September last year, three months after it was established to streamline the country’s public transport system.

Although it gave itself 12 months to finalise the national public transport blueprint, the alignment for the first MRT line running 51km from Sungai Buloh to Kajang was opened to public feedback in March with tendering of work beginning in April.

SPAD chief executive Mohd Nur Kamal had said at the official MRT launch in July that “there is no sense waiting” for the masterplan as the mega project was primarily geared towards “jump-starting” the Najib administation’s Economic Transformation Programme.

Rajiv said the masterplan also fell short of a full transport masterplan that would take into account other parties such as the Public Works Department, local councils and the Malaysian Highway Authority.

“Instead, SPAD will plan and cross its fingers that everything else falls into place,” the Subang Jaya local councillor said.

Although Rajiv would not reveal details of Transit’s two discussions with SPAD over the masterplan this year, he said the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) had not been approached to discuss bus routes, “so you can deduce which direction they are heading.”

Transit had earlier proposed a BRT as an alternative for alleviating choking road traffic in the Klang Valley, stating that implementing it would cost 50 times less than the MRT.

But the suggestion was shot down in the MRT’s environmental impact assessment report which said that it would require 90-passenger vehicles to run uninterrupted nearly every 10 seconds to match the MRT’s targeted 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD).

The MRT project has come under fire from various parties including Malay contractors who demanded that qualifications for projects be eased to ensure Bumiputera participation.

Several communities have also been up in arms over SPAD’s insistence that it must acquire their land to build tracks for the project that it says is in the greater public interest.