PUTRAJAYA: The Putrajaya monorail project, which was suspended in 2004, could have been completed if it was handed over to the private sector.
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there were companies ready to take over the project but that it had previously been ignored by the government.
"It was a project that we can be proud of because it is a local project.
"If the private sector was allowed to do it, it could have been done through a process of tender, and I think the project could have been completed.
"I do not understand (why the project was put on hold) because it was decided that we should develop the monorail project in Putrajaya. In fact, the monorail's suspension bridge was completed, and the project could have continued," he told a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here today.
Dr Mahathir questions whether the project was cancelled due to a lack of funds or because the government simply refused to continue with it.
The former Langkawi member of parliament was responding to a question by the press about the Auditor General's Report 2021 Series 2, which stated that the government lost an estimated RM812.91 million from the development of its administrative capital in Putrajaya.
On Thursday, a business portal reported that the biggest portion of these losses, or RM799.34 million, was because of the monorail project, which was put on hold in 2004.
Putrajaya was developed and founded as the country's administrative capital based on a plan by Dr Mahathir during his first tenure as prime minister between 1981 and 2003.
According to the 7th Malaysia Plan, the cost of developing Putrajaya was approximately RM20.09 billion.