PARLIAMENT | The government has no plans to reopen the tender for the LRT3 project as the compensation fees are too high, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“In terms of compensation we have to pay, it is more than RM4.2 billion if we want to call for open tender again. This is not a cost we can bear.

“Because the compensation fees are so high, it is not suggested that we reopen this tender,” Lim said during Minister Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a question by Reezal Merican Naina Merican (BN-Kepala Batas) who had asked whether the Pakatan Harapan government would re-open the tender for the project.

Reezal then pointed out that the project delivery partners (PDP) had failed to keep the cost of the LRT3 at RM9 billion, which was the original cost at the time the deal was inked.

“Would it not be better to reopen the tender, since the PDP has failed, and it would also be a more transparent process?” he asked.

Lim said it was the former BN administration which accepted the increased costs when it first exceeded RM9 billion, and it was Prasarana Bhd itself which had sought an additional RM22 billion from Putrajaya for the project.

“Now we can only re-examine (the LRT3 project) so we can reduce costs, we do not have a choice.

“We have to find a middle way where we do not have to pay compensation, we can also have LRT3 for the Lembah Klang residents and at the same time, can reduce costs.

“The fact that we reduced the project’s cost from RM31 billion to RM16 billion is a huge success for the Pakatan Harapan government because we managed to save the rakyat’s money,” Lim said.