Prasarana has big plans for Dang Wangi

Under the rail-plus-propert scheme, the areas surrounding the Dang Wangi station would be developed for commercial or residential purposes.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s first attempt at a rail-plus-property model will take place in Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur.

National transport company Prasarana chief Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff said the company was already finishing up its plans to develop the station, located along the Kelana Jaya line.

“Dang Wangi is probably going to be the first rail-plus-property that we’re going to do near Wisma Denmark… that’s where we’re going to have our first-rail-plus property.”

“We were already looking at it with our station at Dang Wangi and we are in the midst of finalising our joint-venture agreement with a particular developer,” he told reporters here today.
However, Zulkifli, the project development group director, declined to elaborate on the details of the project, or the developer involved.

A rail-plus-property model is a scheme where the area surrounding a railway station would be developed for commercial or residential purposes.

An example of this scheme can be seen in Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation (Mass Transit Railway).

This model would be expected to minimise costs on public transport infrastructure, keeping a rail operator’s fares affordable in the process.

For this reason, the model has been suggested by by the government for the upcoming My Rapid Transit (MRT) lines to cover its costs.

Today, Zulkifli said Prasarana was also looking at the model for stations located along the Light Rail Transit (LRT) extension lines, including the Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines.

One example, he said, was at a stop currently known as “Station 2″ on the extended Kelana Jaya line, along Jalan Lapangan Terbang Subang.

“Planning is on the way to have property development… and this can be in the form of commercial areas or a mix (such as) commercial and residential.”

“One area where we’re looking at is Station 2… just beside the old airport road, (which is now) called Ara Damansara… That is one area where we feel has a potential for property development at our station,” he said.

Speaking on the actual LRT extension itself, Zulkifli said that “90%” of the contracts or “40 to 50″ of them assigned to the project have been awarded thus far.

Announced last year that it would not cost more than RM7 billion to build, the Prasarana head said that major works on the project had already started.

With “20%” of the project already completed, Zulkifli said that more than RM6.5 billion worth of contracts had been awarded thus far.

This included roughly RM2 billion for the Ampang Line; RM2.5 billion for Kelana Jaya Line; RM1billion for 20 Ampang Line trains; and RM1 billion for system works (including signalling and telecommunication).

Prasarana added that ninety percent of the land needed for the project had been acquired, and that the last 10% “was being done”.

However, Zulkifli said that this last bit of land acquisition would not affect the project’s total completion by the end of 2014.

The 17.7-km Ampang Line extension is expected to be opened to the public by October 2014, with the Kelana Jaya Line following in December 2014, with 13 stations each.

Both lines will continue from their current stops at Sri Petaling (Ampang Line) and Kelana Jaya and terminate at Putra Heights.