MRT3, Pan Borneo Highway on track, says Mustapa

 

MRT3 as well as the East Coast Rail Link and the Pan Borneo Highway will not be affected by the government’s plan to postpone or cancel new projects.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has given an assurance that mega projects such as the Mass Rapid Transit 3 (MRT3) project and the Pan Borneo Highway will continue as planned.

Economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed told the Dewan Rakyat the government had only identified 30 projects that would be postponed this year.

“Projects such as MRT3 will be continued, as will the ECRL (East Coast Rail Link) and the Pan Borneo Highway. So what will be delayed are new projects that have not started yet and have not been advertised,” Mustapa said, responding to a response from Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai).

“We have identified 30 projects involving a cost of more than RM100 million (that will be postponed), only a small number.”

Fahmi had asked the government to state its plans on postponing or cancelling new projects to cut spending. He also wanted to know what these projects were.

Last week, Mustapa had said the government wanted to cut down on public expenditure by cancelling or deferring projects to enable more funds to be allocated for welfare programmes.

Today, he said the savings from the postponement of projects could be used to fund part of the increase of more than RM40 billion in subsidies.

“There has been a very significant increase from the RM30 billion included in the Budget 2022 estimate to the current (estimate of) RM77.7 billion,” he said.

“That is why the government needs to review its operating expenditure and a small part of its development expenditure.” - FMT