SPAD chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismail Mohamed Kamal told a press conference today that the report would be available at the Department of Environment (DOE) offices as well as several public libraries then.
“I also promise that all feedback that we obtained during the EIA engagement will also be placed on our website and should be available soon.
“So it is not a whitewash. We will put it all up... the best way to give feedback is, of course, in writing so that we can capture it, put it on our website and it will be analysed and considered,” he said.
The Malaysian Insider understands that the EIA report will be put on display for public viewing and feedback for a month by the DOE before it is evaluated and analysed.
Once complete, the department will then decide whether to approve the project, based on its impact on the environment surrounding the construction.
In the meantime, SPAD will also be collecting public feedback on the project and has promised to conduct an in-depth study in May before kicking off construction on the MRT in July.
Mohd Nur was speaking after the launch of the Klang Valley MRT open day and public display of the railway alignment at the Mid Valley exhibition centre here this morning.
They are the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Petaling Jaya City Council, Shah Alam City Council, Selayang Municipal Council, Kajang Municipal Council as well as the Bangsar LRT station and the SPAD office in Menara Dayabumi.
The public can provide their feedback on the project via email to feedback@kvmrt.com.my or through the SPAD toll free line at 1800-82-6868.
Mohd Nur also confirmed today that the project would be entirely government-funded through the setting up of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that is due to be announced by the Finance Ministry soon.
“The ministry will also set the future direction of the SPV, the funding requirements and it will have the responsibility of structuring the payments and ensure that it is suitable with the government’s fiscal position,” he said.
He also stressed that the estimated RM36.6 billion for the project was not a final figure as project regulators were still finalising details.
Syarikat Prasarana Bhd group managing director Shahril Mokhtar, who was also present today, explained that the MRT project would follow Hong Kong’s model closely and focus on the “rail plus property” aspect in order to offset the cost of constructing the system.
“This is very interesting because all this while in Malaysia, in the LRT lines, the property element was not our focus.
“In Hong Kong, they often look at parcels of land which can be developed in a way that can offset the cost of the construction. What we intend to do here is to follow this model as closely as possible in Malaysia,” he said.
Mohd Nur concurred, adding that future debt repayments could come from income through property development around the railway line, which will be undertaken by Prasarana.
“This is so that not 100 per cent of the debt repayment will come from the government’s consolidated fund. This time, we want to ensure that the upside or value created by the rail network will be used by the government to repay part of the debts created to build the infrastructure in the first place,” he said.
During his speech earlier, Mohd Nur said the MRT aims to have 50 per cent of an estimated 18 million trips by about 10 million commuters in the Klang Valley to be via public transport.
“The MRT is crucial to achieve this goal. For example, one MRT carriage can carry 300 people — the equivalent of the average passenger load of three buses or 177 cars,” he said.
He noted that the Kajang-Sungai Buloh line was proposed as it was currently under-served by the present rail networks, has a catchment of 1.2 million people and is the line that has been consistently cited as the most feasible.
According to the Klang Valley MRT website, the ambitious project will have 35 stations along its 51km line that stretches from Sungai Buloh to Kajang, with 13 proposed park-and-ride stations and four interchanges.
Eight of the stations will be underground as 9.5km of the line will be built under the capital city. Groundworks for the MRT is due to start this July 16 and will be completed in 2016.
The MRT is an entry-point project identified for the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley National Key Economic Area under the Economic Transformation Programme.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last December that the implementation of the project is expected to generate a gross national income (GNI) of between RM3 billion and RM4 billion beginning in 2011 until 2020.
He had said that between RM8 billion and RM12 billion was expected to be generated in terms of spin-offs from the construction of the MRT project.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala said last month that physical work for the RM36.6 billion project will start on July 16. - Malaysian Insider
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