State local government, public transport and new village development committee chairman Ng Sze Han said such a huge sum could be used to repair escalators and other faulty facilities at LRT and MRT stations.

In a statement today, the Kinrara assemblyman described the move as a “populist act” that was meant to distract the people from more pressing issues at hand.

Ng also criticised the transport ministry’s decision to reduce train frequencies in order to maintain railway carriages.

“This shouldn’t be happening. Running trains with time intervals of up to six minutes at peak hours is already insufficient to cope with the high number of commuters in the Klang Valley.”

In conjunction with the official opening of Phase 1 of the MRT Putrajaya Line yesterday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that commuters taking the MRT, LRT, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), monorail, KTM Komuter, and RapidKL bus services would not have to pay any fares for one month.

He said RM140 million would be spent on free public transportation services under RapidKL while a further RM15 million would be spent on free KTM Komuter service in the Klang Valley.