During a luncheon cruise on the Putrajaya lake with members of his cabinet this afternoon, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed the reason for choosing the site to construct the administrative capital.

“If I want to flee, I can get to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport).

“Someone said there is a tunnel from the prime minister's residence to KLIA so that I can flee … but I am not going to do that,” he joked.

On a more serious note, Mahathir said the concept of the Putrajaya development was the idea of the late Kuala Lumpur mayor Elyas Omar.

“This Putrajaya concept is not mine. Elyas wanted a place to develop a government administrative centre where all the buildings are occupied by government offices.

“We proposed to have such a development in Janda Baik, Pahang, but there were some problems and we selected a venue between Kuala Lumpur and KLIA,” he added, according to Bernama.

Putrajaya was developed during Mahathir's previous tenure as prime minister.

The luncheon cruise, after the weekly cabinet meeting, was organised by Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad.

Chief secretary to the government Ismail Bakar also joined the cruise.