MRT Corp has denied claims that the realignment of the second MRT line (MRT2) was a government directive aimed at giving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) a shot in the arm.

"It was our own initiative," said MRT Corp public relations Mahmood Abdul Razak ( right ) when asked on the matter.

He said rerouting MRT2 through yet-to-be built Bandar Malaysia instead of Pandan and Cheras, as originally planned, will eventually result in higher ridership.

He added that the realignment will also allow MRT2 to be connected to the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) station, which will be located in Bandar Malaysia.

"This is the responsible thing to do. It provides more connectivity with other rails operators.

"Whether it was 1MDB or any other private developers, they are still going to benefit the alignment," he said.

On March 30, Petaling Jaya MP Tony Pua had questioned the decision to reroute MRT2 to built Bandar Malaysia, away from the densely populated Cheras and Pandan area.

Brainchild of Najib

Bandar Malaysia is the project undertaken by 1MDB, which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

It was reported that the debt ridden state fund manager will either sell its land development in TRX Bandar Tun Razak and Bandar Malaysia or look for a joint venture programme in these two projects.

Despite Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's objection to bailout 1MDB using public fund, the government still approved a huge amount of RM950 million as a standy credit for the the company.

Mahathir had cited 1MDB's mismanagement of fund as reason for Najib to step down.

Meanwhile, Mahmood has defended the contractors who underperformed as highlighted by the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) 2014 annual report in the MRT Line 1, which connected Sungai Buloh to Kajang.

"They were facing constrain, they have to build at the high density areas, in between rivers and highways," he said.

He said it would be expensive to cut-off the underperforming contractors, and as such the company just subscribed to Contractor Performance Assessment System (Conpas) to ensure the contractors keep tab with the progress.

The overall progress of the 51km MRT Line 1 project had achieved 62 percent completion, which is one percent ahead of schedule, as compared with 58 percent end of last year, he said.

The RM22.2bil project is expected to be completed by end of 2016, and would be able to handle 460,000 passengers a day.

Suffered setback

MRT Line 1 has suffered setback with a fatal construction site accident last August and sinkholes in Bukit Bintang.

In the press conference, MRT also announced its Line 2 project or SSP (Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya) project's Detailed Environmental Impact Assestment (DEIA) which has been opened for public scrutiny for a month from Apr 20 to May 19. The public have until June 4 to offer their feedbacks.

The public can get a hard copy from 27 locations such as the municipal council, national library and MRT office, or they can download copies from the Department of Environment and MRT official websites.

The SSP line will involve a total of 600 hectares of development land with 180 hectares of private land. The project is estimated to commence next year.

The reports also identified the private commercial sites in Jalan Kepong and Persiaran Dagang in Bandar Sri Damansara, as part of the possible land acquisitions.

The SSP line spans 52km, covers 36 stations and is projected to benefit about two million residents.