In a statement, the BN strategic communications team responded to Rafizi’s latest claims that the cost of the Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT (MRT-SBK) was 2.5 times more than Korea’s Seoul Line 9 MRT.
Rafizi had claimed yesterday that the Seoul Line 9 should be considered as 112.5km long instead of 37.5km as it was built entirely underground, and so its cost of construction could be three times that of an MRT built above ground.
But in its rebuttal to Pandan MP Rafizi, the BN team pointed out that Seoul Line 9 was not built completely underground and that the Gaehwa station is above ground.
“In fact, Line 9, being the 9th line of Seoul’s expansive MRT system, has multiple shared stations with other lines which further reduces cost of the Line 9 project.”
The statement also pointed out that Rafizi has ignored the fact that the cost of tunnelling varies based on geology.
“For example, the Seoul line 9 runs along the south banks of the Han River where the majority of the tunnelling is through soft compacted soft sand as opposed to the hard granite and limestone formations of Kuala Lumpur,” it said, adding it was cheaper and faster to tunnel through soft sand.
“There are also economies of scale considerations as multiple shorter underground tunnels would cost more on a per km basis as compared to a much longer uninterrupted tunnel project.”
The BN team added that Rafizi continued to use RM28 billion as the cost of the MRT-SBK as it must include RM7 billion in consultancy fees, despite MMC-Gamuda having already announced the consultancy fee is RM750 million.
“These are just some of the many wrong assumptions that prove Rafizi’s formula is misleading and unworkable.”
“The facts remains that on a per km basis, the Seoul line 9 is more expensive than the MRT SBK line — not otherwise, as earlier claimed by Rafizi.”
The BN team urged Rafizi to stop “embarrassing himself” any further as his mistakes have been repeatedly exposed.