KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — Persistent changes to the original design of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 3 project by state transport company, Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, caused the cost to spike to RM31.65 billion from the initial RM9 billion, according to The Edge.

Citing insider sources and documents on the infrastructure project it sighted, the business and financial paper reported today that there were at least 22 issues and changes to the original Employers Requirements of the tender documents dated April 2015, which Prasarana had sought.

"Prasarana being a subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance Inc, would stand guided by the MoF on the way forward for the LRT3 project,” a spokesman of Prasarana told The Edge.

In September 2015, Prasarana appointed MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd — a joint-venture company between George Kent (M) Bhd and Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) — as the project delivery partner (PDP) for the implementation of the LRT3 project, which was designed to ply a 37km route  from Bandar Utama to Klang through Shah Alam.

The project received much criticism from the finance minister, Lim Guan Eng who had attributed the drastic cost increase to Prasarana’s "poor management.”

The Edge said the documents it sighted showed that some of the key changes sought by Prasarana included an extension to train length from 109m to 114m, with six-car trains.

This new instruction was only made in June 2016, and resulted in France’s Systra SA, which won the contract to produce preliminary designs for the LRT3 line to resubmit its preliminary design.

Among other things, it said the changes entailed the length of the stations to be increased to 125m, and maintenance buildings at the depot, and the stabling yard where trains are parked when they are not in operation, to be extended as well.

According to The Edge, the PDP could have continued with the preliminary design by June 2016 even without the new instruction.

It said there were also "persistent changes” in alignment beyond the alignment freeze date of April 2016. The documents indicated that in April 2016, Prasarana had requested to change the original Systra concept from side platforms to island platforms during a workshop, which further delayed the preliminary design.

A variation to the number of parking lots from 5,000 initially to 6,000 had also adversely impacted the preliminary design, it said.

There was also a  change in requirements from a four-car train set to a six-car train set which required 50 per cent more cars to be manufactured within the same time frame, and impacted the signalling and communications specifications.

The changes in signalling specifications brought about the requirement for a separate uninterruptible power supply room, which impacted the station layout design and affected the tender drawings.

The Edge also reported that the scope of work and costs were dictated by Prasarana as per the PDP agreement, and in some instances the board was not aware of the changes requested by the management to the PDP.

On July 14, Prasarana issued a statement to say that it was fully aware that the initial cost of LRT3 of RM10 billion was inadequate, and a substantial increase would be needed for the project to be completed.

It went on to say that on March 30, it had formally requested approval to issue an additional RM22 billion government guaranteed bonds, with the expectation that the final total cost of LRT3 would increase to RM31.65 billion.

Lim  has since announced that the project will go ahead, but the costs have been slashed by 47 per cent  to RM16.63 billion — a savings of RM15 billion.

For its financial year ended December 31, 2016, Prasarana suffered a net loss of RM2.11 billion on revenue of RM835.9 million. The company has accumulated losses of RM8.32 billion.