KUALA LUMPUR: The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project will get return on capital when a daily ridership of 250,000 is achieved.
The National Transformation Programme (NTP) 2017 Report says MRT daily ridership is currently 110,000.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz said the project was implemented via a sukuk loan with a period of between seven and 30 years, with an interest rate of between 3.26 and 5.51 per cent.
He said the return on capital from the project, involving three main networks, could only be achieved in the long term.
“Based on estimates, return on capital can be generated when the daily number of passengers on MRT reaches 250,000 people, compared with the 130,000 and 140,000 people at present.
“However, we need to realise that some stations are still under construction, including Kwasa Damansara, Kwasa Sentral, Kampung Selamat, TRX (Tun Razak Exchange) and Merdeka 118,” he said in reply to a question from Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah (BN-Jasin) at Dewan Rakyat today about the Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) MRT1.
Othman said passenger volume was expected to rise with the completion of several housing and commercial projects along the MRT network.
“InsyaAllah (With the blessing of Allah), we will achieve our aim of encouraging the use of public transport, which would lead to return on capital,” he said.
In reply to Ahmad’s question on the rationale of the turnkey approach (sole contractor structure) in carrying out MRT3, Othman said that this is because 85 percent of the link involved goes underground.
Othman said it was more suitable than the concept of Project Delivery Partner (PDP) used in the SBK Line, for example.
“Monitoring and supervision of the project can be carried out directly by MRT Corp, taking over the function of PDP.
“Currently, there are no projected savings from theconstruction of MRT3 because the process to form the final network had not been finalised.
“Fundamentally, the turnkey approach would be more advantageous because the government can get attractive financial packages offered by the bidder, thereby helping to keep the cost of the project lower,” he said.
Reports by Mohd Anwar Patho Rohman, Hidir Reduan, Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi, Luqman Arif Abdul Karim and Ahmad Suhael Adnan