Malaysians including myself have heavily criticised the RM55 billion contract with China’s state owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to build the 600km East Cost Rail Link. A cursory analysis has shown the project to be the most expensive in the world at RM91.7 million per kilometer.
The Edge, for example, cited the examples of the 215km Padma rail line in Bangladesh and 120km Mombasa rail link in Kenya which were being constructed by China Rail Construction Corp for RM68.1 million and RM61.4 million per kilometer respectively.
For another project in Ethoipia awarded to Turkish contractor, Yapi Merkezi, the 375km Awash-Weldia railway line of which more than 40% is built on challenging terrain, the cost was only US$1.7 billion or RM18.1 million per kilometer.
Similarly for local rail double-tracking projects, the 329km Ipoh-Padang Besar and 179km Gemas-Johor Bahru links were awarded for RM44.0 million and RM39.8 million per kilometer respectively.
However, The Star reported that Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had me “for making assumptions of the cost of the ECRL when it was still not finalised yet”.
“We have to go into negotiation on every kilometre so where did he get the cost? When we implement this project, we will tell the public exactly how much one kilometre costs. When we go into negotiation, we’ll see which areas we can cut costs… Let’s look at how we’re going to implement it fast and we will be transparent about the cost of the ECRL.”
Datuk Seri Liow’s response only goes to prove that he is indeed clueless over the entire ECRL project award exercise.
It was not the opposition Members of Parliament who have come up with the figure of RM55 billion as the cost of the 600km rail project. It was the Finance and Prime Minister himself, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who has announced the value of the project during his 2017 Budget speech which was televised to the whole nation.
The exact words of the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak were “the 600-km rail will connect townships such as Port Klang, ITT Gombak, Bentong, Mentakab, Kuantan, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu and ends in Tumpat, with an estimated cost of RM55 billion.”
Even the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan who is in-charge of the Economic Planning Unit – who is directly involved with the ECRL project award is not disputing the cost of the project. Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan is instead merely trying to dispel the widespread acknowledgement that at RM91.7 million per kilometer, it is the most expensive in the world. (to be disputed in another statement)
Worse, even if the Transport Minister’s allegation that the price hasn’t been any where near finalised is indeed true, then it begs the question as to why the Government of Malaysia has signed the contract with a contractor before the price was concluded?
Not only did the Government fail to conduct any open and competitive tender to award the project to ensure that the tax-payers received their value for money, Datuk Seri Liow is saying that the Government has signed a multi-billion ringgit contract with a foreign company without even first negotiating the price of the project!
How more incompetent and irresponsible can the Minister and the Government get? Unless the Government has an ulterior motive to award it to CCCC in the first place?
If the Transport Minister is really transparent, and not mere claiming transparency, the he should immediately make available to the public the contracts which has been signed with CCCC and the project financier China Exim Bank, as well as the past cost and feasibility studies which have been carried out by Government-appointed consultants on the project.