KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — The initial approved RM10 billion for the Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) project was never enough to begin with, public transport company Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) said today after reports emerged of the cost tripling.
Prasarana said the initial Cabinet approval in 2015 to issue government guaranteed bonds of RM10 billion for the construction of the LRT3 project had excluded many of the related project costs.
“The RM10 billion Government Guarantee, which was approved on March 30, 2015, only took into account the cost for work package contracts and supply of feeder buses (RM9 billion), as well as land acquisition (RM1 billion).
“Prasarana was fully aware that the initial cost of LRT3 (RM10 billion) was inadequate, and a substantial increase would be needed for the project to be completed,” the company’s group communications and strategic marketing said in a statement.
On July 10, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the 37km-long LRT3 project’s estimated cost of RM31.45 billion was due to “poor management” by Prasarana, adding that the cost must be drastically reduced by more than RM6 billion for the project to be feasible and for the government to allow it to proceed.
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