NAJIB SPINNER DRAWS COMPARISON WITH DR M: 4 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS UNDER EX-PM WENT BANKRUPT – BUT DID DR M SPLURGE RM100BIL LIKE NAJIB?

PETALING JAYA – Four major Kuala Lumpur public transportation projects initiated by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was given to private companies and then promptly went bankrupt, revealed political blogger Lim Sian See.

Lim named the four projects as the KL Monorail line, the Putra LRT line, the Star LRT line and the Intrakota bus services.

“All four major KL public transportation projects initiated by Mahathir was given to private companies via concessions and then promptly went bankrupt,” said Lim.

“The government had to bail all of the Mahathir projects out,” he said.
Lim said the KL Monorail line was a privatised project that was approved in a cabinet meeting in June 1989.

“Its cost was then estimated at RM143mil. When eventually completed and opened, it cost RM1.18 billion in 2003,” said Lim in a post on his Facebook page.

Later, the company went bankrupt and was bailed out and taken over by government-owned Prasarana Malaysia in 2007 for RM882mil.

The Putra LRT line was a privatised line that started operations in 1998 and went bankrupt.

Lim said the compnay was bailed out and taken over by Prasarana in 2002 for between RM4.5bil to RM5.7bil.

The Star LRT line started operations in 1996 and then went bankrupt.

It was bailed out and taken over by Prasarana in 2002 for RM3.3bil.

The Intrakota bus services that started operations in 1998 also went bankrupt

It was then bailed out and taken over by Prasarana in 2003 for RM177mil.

Lim compared the four projects to those of current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, saying that all are government projects that do not have concession agreements.

“LRT1 extension, LRT2 extension and now the recently launched MRT Sungai Buloh–Kajang line, which are all in the hands of the government, does not have concession agreements that requires periodic fees increases,” he said.

Lim said that the projects were also all delivered either on time and on budget, or ahead of time and below budget.

– ANN