A BN strategic communications team has again rubbished PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli's claims of escalating costs of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project.

In a statement last night, the anonymous group zoomed in on Rafizi's Tuesday claim that the 51km MRT1 project from Sungai Buloh to Semantan was completed at double the price of similar projects in Spain and South Korea.

"It is clear that both the MRT Seoul and Barcelona projects cited by Rafizi were more expensive than the MRT1 project in terms of costs per kilometre," said the group, citing official data by relevant authorities from South Korea and Spain.

Their official sources, the team said, was unlike Rafizi whom they accused of relying on figures from an anonymous blog called Pedestrian Observations.

Rafizi had said that the Barcelona Sants-La Sagrera MRT project, completed in 2011, cost US$39 million per km while the Seoul Line 9 MRT project, completed in 2009, cost US$43 million per km.

In contrast, based on the RM21 billion price tag, the 51km MRT 1 project would cost US$103 million per km, even at a modest exchange rate of RM4 to the dollar.

The BN group however cited data from Korea's Institute of Development that the Seoul MRT cost US$5.7 billion or US$152 million per km.

It also pointed out that the Metropolitan Seoul authorities had cited US$105 million as the average cost per km for various MRT lines around the city.

"Once again we would like to stress here that if Rafizi is still confident that the cost for Seoul's high capacity MRT project is USD43 million per km, he should be questioning the Penang state government on why its much lower capacity LRT project at ground level is costing US$64 million per km," they said.

'Apples and oranges'

On Spain's Barcelona Sants-La-Sagrera project, the team said the US$39 million per km figure cited by Rafizi was only for construction of one 5.8km tunnel instead of an entire MRT system.

This, they said, was based on information obtained from Spain's official website on railway gazettes.

"It is ridiculous for an MP to use the cost of construction for a tunnel as comparison for an entire MRT project, just to make an allegation that the MRT1 project's cost has more than doubled," the team said.

The entire 48km Barcelona Metro Line was completed in 2014 with a total cost of US$7.9 billion or US$164.5 million per km, the team added.

They also challenged Rafizi to question Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng over the state's 7.2km tunnel project that costs US$162 million per km (based on 2011's exchange rate).

"We will highlight even more evidence that Rafizi, whether knowingly or otherwise, have been using false information to incite and misled the people by slandering the government," said the team, noting Rafizi's refusal to comment on their earlier arguments.

Free Malaysia Today had quoted Rafizi as having dismissed the anonymous team's criticisms as mere "cybertroopers".

In a series of tweeted responses last night, Rafizi defended his claims that the entire MRT project from Phase 1 to 3 would cost over RM100 billion, and challenged Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director-general Puad Zarkashi to prove otherwise.