MP SPEAKS 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 (ECRL). A cursory analysis has shown the project to be the most expensive in the world at RM91.7 million per kilometre.

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 percent is built on challenging terrain, the cost was only US$1.7 billion or RM18.1 million per kilometre.

Similarly for local rail double-tracking projects, the 329km Ipoh-Padang Besar and 179km Gemas-Johor Baru links were awarded for RM44 million and RM39.8 million per kilometre respectively.

However, The Star reported that 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.”

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 came up with the figure of RM55 billion as the cost of the 600km rail project. It was the finance and prime minister himself, Najib Abdul Razak, who announced the value of the project during his Budget 2017 speech which was televised to the whole nation.

The exact words of Najib Abdul Razak were “the 600km rail will connect townships such as Port Klang, ITT Gombak, Bentong, Mentakab, Kuantan, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Baru and end in Tumpat, with an estimated cost of RM55 billion.”

Even Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan who is in charge of the Economic Planning Unit - which is directly involved with the ECRL project award - is not disputing the cost of the project. Abdul Rahman is instead merely trying to dispel the widespread acknowledgement that at RM91.7 million per kilometre, it is the most expensive in the world.

Worse, even if the transport minister’s allegation that the price hasn’t been any where near finalised is indeed true, then it raises the question as to why the government of Malaysia 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 taxpayers received their value for money, Liow is saying that the government 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, then he should immediately make available to the public the contracts that have been signed with CCCC and the project financier China Exim Bank, as well as the past cost and feasibility studies that have been carried out by government-appointed consultants on the project.

TONY PUA is the DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP.