KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Phase Two of the Shah Alam Light Rail Transit Line 3 (LRT3) project remains part of the government’s long term development plan and will include five additional stations and seven more train sets, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Hasbi Habibollah said the existing infrastructure had also been designed to support future expansion should passenger demand increase.

“Although the trains currently operate with three-car formations, the platforms have already been constructed to accommodate additional capacity in the future. There is still room for expansion if required,” he said.

Hasbi was responding to a supplementary question from Permatang Pauh MP Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan, who raised concerns over whether cost cutting measures introduced in 2018 could result in overcrowding during peak hours, similar to the congestion experienced on the Kelana Jaya LRT Line.

Responding to the concerns, Hasbi acknowledged that the 2018 review had led to substantial revisions to the project, but stressed that current capacity was sufficient based on projected passenger demand.

“The review carried out in 2018 did result in changes to the project. However, based on MRT Corp’s ridership projections, passenger numbers are expected to reach around 67,000 a day during the initial years of operation, while the system is capable of carrying up to 223,560 passengers daily,” he said.

He added that ridership is forecast to grow gradually to approximately 126,000 passengers per day by 2040 and around 219,000 by 2050.

“With a daily capacity of 223,560 passengers, the current system is sufficient to meet projected demand up to around 2040,” he said.

Explaining the delay to the LRT3 project, he said the 37.8-kilometre Shah Alam LRT Line, which runs between Bandar Utama and Johan Setia, was held up after several system integration issues were detected during critical testing phases.

He said the integration tests had to be carried out repeatedly until all issues were successfully resolved to ensure passenger safety, comfort and smooth train operations.

Hasbi then went on to say that the delays did not lead to any increase in project costs as LRT3 was implemented under a fixed price turnkey contract.

“There was no additional cost to the government. In fact, the contractor was subject to late completion damages of RM2.729 million per day,” he said.