KUALA LUMPUR: CONSTRUCTION on the much-anticipated third light rail transit (LRT3) line linking Bandar Utama and Klang is expected to begin by the end of next year.
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal said the commission was in the midst of approving the feasibility study on the route alignment proposed by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd.
More than 300,000 commuters are expected to benefit from this line.
“We (SPAD) are refining the alignment of the 36km-long project before we submit it to the railway scheme application soon.
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also the finance minister, will take a look at it and give the conditional approval before we can release it for public display,” he told the New Straits Times yesterday.
Nur Ismal said the public could give their suggestions and comments on the proposed alignment during the three-month display period before it was submitted for the final railway scheme application.
“We will refine the plan for the proposed LRT3, including the alignment, before implementing the initiative.”
Nur said the RM9 billion project would begin from the Bandar Utama Mass Rapid Transit station, which was under construction.
“The line will go on to Tropicana before cutting across Hicom-Glenmarie Industrial Park, heading for Shah Alam via Section 13 near the Shah Alam Stadium, Universiti Teknologi Mara in Section 2 and i-City in Section 7.
“The train will then travel down Bukit Raja to the Klang KTM Komuter station before heading further south for Bukit Tinggi and Johan Setia,” he said, adding that there would be 26 stations in the route.
He said there would be 10 park-and-ride stations and four integrated stations, which would connect the MRT, LRT Kelana Jaya line, RapidKL’s Bus Rapid Transit and Komuter services.
Najib, during the tabling of the 2015 Budget, had announced an allocation of RM9 billion for the development of the LRT3 project to boost connectivity and mobility among residents in Greater Kuala Lumpur.
Tenders to build the LRT3 line will be called around June.
Prasarana group managing director Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar told the NST yesterday that he hoped that construction could start four to five months after the tender was awarded.
He said Prasarana would start to craft out the programme for the construction with a project delivery partner (PDP) as early as next year.
Prasarana is a wholly-owned government unit set up by the Finance Ministry and is the operator and asset owner of LRT lines.
LRT3 will be developed on a PDP concept and the tender for this would be called within the next one to three months, said Shahril.
“It will be an open tender and anyone can bid for it to render their services as a PDP, but they have to meet the criteria. We are setting the criteria now (and this) will be announced within the next month.
“Once we have appointed the PDP, we will sit down with them and craft out the programme for the project. The target is that the project should start the latest by the fourth quarter of next year.”
The PDP concept has been adopted in the Klang Valley My Rapid Transit (MRT) Line 1 development from Sungai Buloh to Kajang.
MMC Gamuda KVMRT Sdn Bhd was appointed as PDP for the MRT Line 1 in February 2012.
Under the agreement, the PDP will receive a fee of six per cent of the total aggregate work package contract value.
Should the eventual total cost of the project be less than or equal to the target cost, the PDP shall be entitled to the full fee. But if the project cost is more than the target cost, the PDP fee shall be reduced in accordance with an agreed formula.