A new elevated monorail line was launched in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad saying the country may eventually turn to bullet trains to ease its traffic woes.

"Nothing is going to stop us. We may go on to built high-speed trains," Mahathir said at the launch.

The construction of the new inter-city rapid transport system began seven years ago but was delayed following the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and an accident in which a safety wheel fell on a reporter during a trial period last August.

It was supposed to begin operating last October.

"After seven years, the Malaysian designed-and-built monorail system has been realised,"said David Chew, chairman of MTrans Holdings which operates the 1.18-billion-ringgit system.

There has been interest in the Malaysian system from Indonesia, China and Dubai, he said.

18,000 passengers per trip

On Thursday MTrans signed a memorandum of understanding with its Indonesian partners to provide technological expertise to construct a 20-kilometre monorail system in Jakarta costing RM1.52 billion.

Tickets for the 11-stations Kuala Lumpur system will be priced between RM1.20 ringgit and RM2.50.

The monorail has a maximum carrying capacity of 18,000 passengers per hour per direction, according to a MTrans Holdings official.

"We expect to carry about 85,000 passengers a day between September and December this year, while our forecast sees passengers traffic hitting 120,000 per day by 2005," managing director Bakhtiar Jamilee was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper.

Kuala Lumpur already has another elevated commuter transport system. - AFP