SHAH ALAM: The Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) project, which passes through key areas such as Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Klang, is commencing as planned, said Prasarana Malaysia Bhd (Prasarana) today.
Its president and group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Azmi Abdul Aziz said the RM9 billion project, which stretches about 37km, will start with the preliminary works in Johan Setia, Klang and the construction of staff quarters building.
"I will submit a tender for the preliminary works on the construction project next month.
"It begins with the "system work" package such as printing, communications and signaling.
"After that, we will carry out the process of civil engineering work to build the tracks and LRT stations.
"So far, everything is going according to plan and still in the early stages." he said.
Speaking to reporters today, Azmi said the land acquisition process in the Johan Setia area was successful with the rest expected to be completed within this year.
"Also, we will first need to focus on the LRT 3 design factor before making another process of acquiring land.
"The tender were open through pre-qualification and the screening process are being done to identify qualified tenders.
"The offer is now closed and an announcement will be made after the results have been finalised," he said, after a prize-giving ceremony to 12 selected winners of Prasarana's art contest 'Painting The Rail Future', here at the Glenmarie LRT station today.
When asked if Prasarana plans to expand into taxi services in the near future, Azmi said the company are open to ideas thah could enhance the public transportation.
At the moment, he said the company's only mode of transportation are buses and rails services.
"We (Prasarana) are now looking on how we can expand the spectrum of public transportation.
"It can involve land or water... and also because we want the public to have the best transportation service." he said.
Meanwhile, Prasarana has selected 12 winning artworks for the Light Rail Transit 3’s (LRT3) "Painting The Rail Future" art contest.
The art contest, which kick-started on Oct 13 and closed on Dec 13 last year, saw a total of 125 artworks being submitted for all the four categories.
It was jointly organised by Prasarana and MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd (MRCBGK), the project delivery partner of the LRT3 project.
The winners for the primary school category were; Cheng Jun Hao (1st place), 12 of SJK (C) Kwang Hwa Pahang, Nurul Qurratul Ain binti Khairul Arifin (2nd place), 9, of SK Taman Ranting 3 Johor and Lee Sin Xuan (3rd place), 9 of SJK (C) Chong Kuang Penang.
The winner for the secondary school category was Leong Ka Hei, 15 of SMK (P) Sri Aman, Sarawak. He was followed by Lee Sin Yin, 15, of SMJK Jit Sin Penang and in third place was Cheng Jia Teck, 16 of SMJK Confucian KL.
For the college and university category, the winner was Goh Wern Sze, 19 of Taylor’s College Subang Jaya in Selangor. This was followed by Syahadat Rosli, 22 from UniKL IPROM (Penang) in second place and Leong Ka Mun, 18 from IACT College Selangor in third place.
In the open category, the winner was Ahmad Syahmi Ismail, 26, from Selangor followed by Kong Wei Cheng, 23, from Johor and in third place is Izzat Aziz, 27, from Johor.
Prasarana said the winning artworks will be used for LRT3-related promotional material and credit will be given to the respective artists.
A prize-giving ceremony was held here yesterday at the Glenmarie station in Shah Alam. Prizes comprised of cash and book vouchers.