IT is to no surprise that the announcement to proceed with the MRT3 project has been broadly welcomed by the market, with many construction counters recording gains this week after Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong confirmed that the project will be up for tender this May.
Broken into five main packages, MRT3, also known as the Circle Line, is the third line under the three-line Klang Valley MRT project announced in 2010.
Stretching for 51km, the estimated construction cost for MRT3 is around RM31bil, excluding land acquisition costs estimated at RM8bil.
With Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) as asset owner and project developer, two turnkey contractors expected to be chosen for elevated works, one turnkey contractor for underground works, one for rail system integration, and another to serve as a project management consultant.
Dr Wee said the government will finance the bulk of the project, with the private sector paying some upfront costs, with the specifics of each funding scheme differing for each of the five packages up for tender.
Realising green commutes
Beyond the ringgit figures, this public infrastructure project is expected to transform how city dwellers will live and work as it is a critical piece in the move to manage traffic congestion, curb carbon emissions, and improve livability in many ways by shortening the commute and lead to cleaner air.
Key dates
“The project is the critical last piece to complete the Kuala Lumpur urban rail network. This complete transit system will further encourage public transport usage. The Circle Line will be connected to existing MRT, LRT, KTM, and monorail lines through 10 interchange stations,” said Dr Wee in a press conference on Tuesday. According to MRT Corp chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim, this milestone for MRT3 came following extensive engagement with stakeholders.
“This was the result of various studies and engagements over the past year following the government’s approval for MRT Corp to carry out technical studies in April last year.
”A complete transit network will enable the government to introduce more measures such as vehicle and environmental fee to reduce congestion and drive carbon emissions down,” said Mohd Zarif at the same event.
“Last year, we shared several insights on how MRT3 would be designed.
“Our approach now is holistic and consistent with those design principles: alignment that delivers multiple benefits, high-value creation to the economy, utilisation of optimal cost and funding mechanisms, and driving long-lasting residual value,” he said, adding that the project intends to scale up capabilities of Malaysian companies and talents in order to compete beyond Malaysia.
Sustaining the construction sector
In an immediate reaction, the Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) said that to capitalise on the continuity of supply chain from MRT2 (also known as the Putrajaya Line), the MRT3 construction should ideally start by third quarter of this year.
“The current proposed alignment and stations location provide excellent connectivity to complete the MRT loop which will help to spur ridership,” said MBAM president Tan Sri Sufri Mhd Zin in a statement to StarBizWeek.
However, he argued that a more desirable timeline would be for the project to be completed within six years, instead of the currently eight years as announced.
“It must be noted that the expected cost of the project may be impacted by material cost (due to the current war in Ukraine) and post-Covid-19 labour cost if construction commencement is delayed.
Highly strategic: The ridership of public transport in the Klang Valley will likely rise to two million passengers daily when the MRT3 is up and running.
“If we follow the timelines for MRT1 and MRT2, a more reasonable timeline for MRT3 is six years.
“The reality is the longer the timeline, the higher the risk the project is exposed to cost increases.
“Furthermore, the industry is really in need of projects and for contractors to replenish their order books that had been decimated due to Covid-19,” said Sufri.
MBAM also called for the project to ensure that local players, including bumiputra contractors, can have a decent share of the construction pie.
“It is important that the project be done by local contractors who have invested a lot in capital expenditure for MRT2. Thus for MRT3, we hope commencement can be expedited.
“The project can be packaged out to suit local contractor capacity and capability to ensure delivery. International contractors should not participate unless for very specialised jobs.
“It would also augur well for the MRT3 project if emphasis is placed on meeting environment, social and corporate governance guidelines, along with the usage of industrialised building system and digitalisation 4.0, which will spur the usage of the technologies,” added Sufri.
Hopes for a shorter project timeline
According to Goh Bok Yen, a transport planning consultant, the long-awaited announcement was perhaps a tad late, considering that the MRT3 serves as a critical links for existing multimodal systems in the Klang Valley.
“With the absence of this circle line, the five major rail transport modes (KTM, MRT, monorail and stage buses) continue to operate largely in isolation, resulting in each line or mode being unable to perform to their optimum level, consequently resulting in low ridership and the attendant financial deficits.
“Unlike any other line in the Klang Valley, the MRT3 is a highly strategic line with a very clear objective and undisputed role as a ridership ‘booster’ for all the other modes of public transport.
The line will transforming the currently fragmented system to become a well-coordinated multi-modal system, leading to overall better efficiency in moving people.
Upon the achievement of a unified system – both in terms of physical and ticketing integration – the Klang Valley rail network will allow buses, e-hailing vehicles, taxis and so on to provide systematic first and last mile journeys,” said Goh.
In terms of station spacing, he felt that he approximate location of 1.64km in between stations (51km divided by 31 stations) is considered reasonable for an urban link.
Nonetheless, Goh is urging the government to speed up the completion date.
“Taking eight years to realise a 51km urban track (with nearly 11km underground) is undoubtedly slow, especially for a link which is strategic to the system. Perhaps in the tender process and reviews, there will be experts who will be to able offer good advice,” he said.
Immense potential to boost ridership
Meanwhile, Prasarana Malaysia Bhd president and chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah is confident that ridership of public transport in Klang Valley will rise to two million passengers daily when MRT3 is up and running.
“Prior to the Covid-19, ridership hovered at about 1.2 million a day, but it dropped to 380,000 during the pandemic,” said Azharuddin, whose confidence stems from the upcoming Integrated Common Payment System (ICPS), an integrated fare calculation system that will cover all Klang Valley-based rail and bus network operated by Prasarana, along with KTM Komuter.
Under the National Transport Plan 2019-2030, the modal share of public transport as a percentage of trips in the Klang Valley is envisaged to be around 40% by 2030, and ICPS is a key enabler to boost ridership by providing seamless ticketing integration, along with physical network integration.
ICPS is a unified ticketing system that was initially managed by the Land Public Transport Commission (now Land Public Transport Agency) which aims to allow travel on all city bus and rail networks using a single smartcard that was originally planned to be unveiled in 2018.
The ICPS project, which is now parked under the Finance Ministry, allows discounts to be given to commuters who make multiple transfers across different lines or modes so that these can be recognised as single trips (hence drawing a lower fare), instead of separate trips.