A Ministry of Finance Incorporated company, MRT Co, approved by the cabinet on Wednesday will assume project and asset owner of the Klang Valley MY Rapid Transit (MRT) project from Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd effective Sept 1.

It will focus on ensuring smooth implementation of the Sungai Buloh-Kajang line.

The government is expected to appoint a Malaysian citizan as the chief executive Officer of MRT Co at a later date.

"The government is fully committed to the timely and cost-effective delivery of the Klang Valley MRT project, which will have tremendous spillover economic benefits,” said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in a statement issued yesterday by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

"In handling a project of this size and complexity, undivided focus and clarity in terms of project governance is of utmost priority.

"Ideally, and as we have heard from the public many times, having an efficient transport system in the Klang Valley is extremely critical.

"The cabinet felt that it was necessary to have a dedicated unit focused solely on ensuring that our country’s biggest ever infrastructure is implemented with undivided attention to details, smoothly and effectively, while maintaining transparent governance throughout the process,” said Najib, who is also finance minister.

MRT Co will have a project management and technical team comprising experts in mass rail projects and will include expertise seconded from the current Prasarana MRT team.

The team’s scope of responsibility involves project monitoring and tracking of the construction of all elevated structures, stations, depots as well as underground works, including tunneling and stations.

MRT Co will also be responsible for the commercial aspects of the project, covering contracts, procurement and dispute resolution as well as ensuring quality of delivery in terms of cost, scheduling and health, safety, security and environment requirements.

MRT Co’s project management and technical team will be led by Marcus Levon Karakashian, who has been involved in the implementation of major rail projects over the past 30 years.

Projects Karakashian has handled include Singapore MRT’s Downtown, North-East and East-West Lines and London’s Jubilee Line extension.

Karakashian will report to the MRT Co chief executive officer.

Other parties involved in the MRT project are Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), as the supervising agency, and MMC-Gamuda, as the project delivery partner (PDP).

Upon project completion, the operator of the MRT will be RapidKL, a subsidiary of Prasarana.

"As such, Prasarana will continue to play a critical role in the project, as its input and feedback during the construction phases will be beneficial to the eventual operations of the Klang Valley MRT," it said.

As the government supervising agency for the Klang Valley MRT project, SPAD’s role is to fulfil its ultimate objective of providing Klang Valley residents with a comfortable, efficient and integrated public transport system.

The PDP's role, played by MMC-Gamuda, is a concept to enhance the project manager role with built-in incentives and penalties that are designed to ensure that the interests of the PDP are aligned with the Government during project implementation.

MMC-Gamuda also provides a single point of accountability to deliver the entire project within the agreed time and cost targets or face financial penalties.

With the incorporation of MRT Co, Prasarana will now be able to give undivided attention to its role of fulfilling an efficient and reliable public transportation service for the Klang Valley.

Among the immediate tasks for Prasarana will be to focus on improving the current LRT service and line expansion projects; expanding monorail capacity; improving existing bus services on high demand and congested routes; and ultimately achieving profitability in the near future.

- Bernama