Why the RM100 million price tag for a 1km line extension at KLIA, asks Public Accounts Committee
The Malaysian Insider – 9 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- Why the RM100 million price tag for a 1km line extension at KLIA, asks Public Accounts …
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has raised its concerns over the RM100 million price tag to extend the KLIA Ekspres rail line by only 1km to link the KL International Airport (KLIA) and klia2.
PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (pic) said that the new airport's main contractor, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), should have borne the cost instead of making taxpayers pay for it as the extension is in the airport's compound.
"Even though the distance is only 1km, but the construction cost footed by the government is RM100 million.
"Also, passengers will be charged for airport transfer between KLIA and klia2," Nur Jazlan said in a press conference after proceedings with low-cost carrier Air Asia in Parliament today.
He added that the extension of the link should have been added as part of the klia2 project as it is in the same area.
"We want to know the rationale behind this, given the extension costs, it should have been taken into account."
Passengers using the link are to be charged an additional RM2 on top of the RM35 for a one-way ticket from KL Sentral to KLIA.
In the meeting with AirAsia today, Nur Jazlan said the airline had asked Putrajaya to consider setting up an airline committee to give them an avenue to express their dissatisfactions over the country's airline industry.
"AirAsia asked if the government could ensure the freedom of the airline industry with the setting up of a committee to hear the views of different parties before it makes any decision on airline related issues," he said.
In the proceedings, Nur Jazlan said PAC also received an explanation from AirAsia about the country's airline policies and the monopoly of government-linked companies in the country's airline industry.
"PAC also wants to know, the government controls MAS (Malaysia Airlines), MAHB and at the same time, why MAS continues to record losses while AirAsia continues to rake in profits," he said.
The low-cost carrier was called to testify before the PAC following several issues with the construction of the new klia2 airport, including the increase of its cost from RM2 billion to RM4 billion.
Before AirAsia, PAC had also called the Transport Ministry and MAHB to give their explanations over klia2 issues.
"The important thing is we want to give those involved a chance to explain themselves so that we can make a fair decision," he said.
Although the PAC, he said, has not found any links to corruption or abuse in the klia2 project, it would still investigate why the project had faced many problems.
"We want to know why the project had faced so many problems despite being done through open tender," he said.
Flight operations at klia2 will begin on May 2 while the present low-cost carrier terminal is scheduled to close on May 9.
Malindo Air, Cebu Pacific Air, Tiger Airways Singapore, Lion Air, Indonesia's Mandala Airlines have announced that they will begin operations at klia2 by May 2.
AirAsia had earlier said the budget carrier and its sister long-haul airline AirAsia X will not move into klia2 when it opens as they were concerned about the airport's functionality, safety and security.
However, on April 15, it confirmed it would operate out of klia2 by May 9. – April 28, 2014.
