The operators of KL’s massive Massive Rapid Transit (MRT) project are now saying “unavoidable” obstacles have caused progress on construction sites across the city to be delayed, while a route on the next phase of the transit line has been diverted to pass through the as yet unbuilt Bandar Malaysia township.
MRT Corp strategic communications and public relations director Mahmood Abdul Razak said today there have been instances where the company’s contractors have had to spend more time on completing certain objectives, as was evidenced at Pusat Bandar Damansara’s piling work.
“To just drill down the piling there, it took them more than the required months. There were very hard and strong rock down there. When we did our study, we thought it would be a simple (task) but when we went down there it was different,” he said, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online‘s Yiswaree Palansamy.
The 2014 Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) annual report released yesterday noted that MRT’s Line 1 construction progress currently stands at 59%, a little over 20% short of the targeted 80%.
As of March 31, MRT Corp’s own estimates place them at 79% completion, just shy of their internal projections of 85%.
Mahmood stressed that while MRT Corp would not defend the poor performance of its contractors, it could not however terminate the services of those contractors at this stage, as it would be too expensive to replace them.
“It will be expensive to cut them off, so what we do is we tell them where they are lacking.”
While Line 1 of the MRT porject moves at more or less an acceptable pace, the second phase of the megaproject raised a few eyebrows when a key part of MRT 2’s route was diverted to accommodate a stop at Bandar Malaysia, the township owned and currently being built in Sungai Besi by troubled sovereign development fund 1MDB.
Mahmood denied speculation that the route diversion was carried out following a directive from the Federal Government or 1MDB, saying that the decision was instead made in anticipation of higher ridership in the area.
“It was our own initiative and re-routing through Bandar Malaysia instead of the initially planned Pandan and Cheras pathway will result in higher ridership.
“Not only that, the realignment will allow the MRT 2, also known as the SSP line, to be connected to the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed rail, to be located in Bandar Malaysia,” he said, as quoted by The Star Online‘s D Kanyakumari.
The decision has caused some apprehension among Malaysians, who are still reminded of past mistakes, particularly that of the Plaza Rakyat LRT station, which now drops commuters off in an abandoned shell of what was supposed to be a shopping mall that never got built.
Here’s hoping Bandar Malaysia (and the KL-Singapore high-speed rail line) really becomes a reality. It would be a shame to have a spiffy new MRT station out in the middle of nowhere.
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