By SHARIDAN M. ALI
Win-win situation for all
Despite the pressures of managing the biggest infrastructure project that the country has ever undertaken, MRT Cochief executive officer Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid is all smiles when we meet him on a rainy Thursday evening at his temporary office in Damansara. Azhar is the new face of the MRT, having been a “surprise” choice by the Government. Best known for his corporate savvy and straight talking approach, he is the man for the project.
In a candid interview with StarBizWeek, he shares the challenges, strategies and aspirations for the ambitious project. Here are excerpts of the interview:
On how MRT Co was established
The MRT project was first initiated by the Land Public Transport Commission but it is a regulator and facilitator and should not be involved in the development of the project.
This was quickly realised and the MRT project was passed on to Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd.
But, again it is not proper for Prasarana to be managing the project as it is the operator of rail infrastructure and should not be loaded up with a project of this size.
I think the Government has quickly realised this and that is how MRT Co came into being about three months ago.
MRT Co will be the developer and asset owner, but eventually the operator of the MRT will still be Prasarana.
On the job
I was approached by the Government to take on the job at MRT Co a day before Hari Raya Puasa - it sounded quite interesting and I accepted it.
There were two things I needed to do quickly handle the fact that MRT Co is a start-up company and take over a project that had already started.
So far, it has been fun although it involves long hours of work even on weekends.
Right now with only about 25 people in MRT Co, I am doing practically everything but we will grow in time.
I have also a project delivery partner that I can rely on.
But, I would like to stress is that I would not have taken the job if I do not have confidence in the project.
This is because the MRT (inclusive of the upcoming line two and three) will tremendously change the landscape of the Kuala Lumpur public transportation network and it will be an important component in improving the livelihood of people living in the city.
For example, the MRT ought to solve the problem of the “urban poor” those who barely make ends meet every month as they live further from the city, do not need to own a car and can still easily travel to work in Kuala Lumpur.
On the challenges
To start with, we do not have a long-term rail infrastructure masterplan that usually spans over 20 years unlike some countries.
We have to do this the hard way where the first MRT line is going to be the learning curve for us.
Hopefully, the development of the second and third MRT line would be easier.
Frankly, the technical issue is not the critical matter but it is the land issue that has created a lot of hype and delay as it has to be tackled and addressed as quickly as possible.
When I first came in, I found out that we have to do compulsory land acquisitions of all the areas that the MRT alignment was on including those underground.
That created the issue with Jalan Sultan, Jalan Inai and Bukit Bintang area.
On the solutions
For the past month I have been focusing on sorting these things (land acquisition issue) out. I felt there was a better way to go around compulsory acquisitions as I was reading all this media reports about “land grab” and how the Government was “victimising” the land owners.
After giving it some thought and getting some advice from Attorney-General and Department of Director-General of Lands and Mines (KPTG), I come to a conclusion to only use the law as a last resort.
But, at the same time the process of compulsory acquisition has already begun before I came along.
I have to quickly approach these affected land and property owners and tell them that there might be is a better way of doing this provided that they agreed to come to the table and protect each others' interests.
For example, in Jalan Sultan where the outcry from the property owners stemmed from the fact that they have been living there for decades and inherited the properties.
So I sat with my team and I asked them, “Do we really need the land? All we need was to tunnel through, right?”
Thus, we quickly considered a reversal of that situation.
Although they initially insisted on realignment, I reasoned with them that we will be tunnelling 100 ft underground and they will have to vacate the area for a maximum of six month with compensation on temporary accomodation, lost of business, damage to their property (if any) and we will also bear the legal fees on the mutual agreement that I hope would be signed soon.
At the end of the day, the property onwers will be able to keep their property. It is an amicable solution.
But, I asked for an endorsement on the title of the property or land to state that there is a tunnel underneath it because one day if they decided to sell the land, the new owner must refer to the MRT Co if they planned to develop the area.
This is to protect the tunnel.
I also use the same approach but with different kind of agreements with property owners in Jalan Inai and Bukit Bintang.
I am an accountant by training and my common sense tells me that by doing this, it is cheaper than buying the property or land and you will save a lot of money for the Government. The earliest that we can get the lawyers of the landowners in Jalan Sultan to discuss the mutual agreement is next week.
Although, a majority of them has, in principle, accepted the proposal, there are a few that still insist on realignment.
But, my doors are always open if they change their mind.
On the project delivery partner
If not for Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp Bhd (the joint-venture entity is the PDP of the MRT project) it would not have started.
They did the ground work, survey and technical feasibility studies to propose to the Government, struck a deal with the Government to jointly manage it.
PDP could be considered the co-owner of the project.
And the PDP must manage the project really well. However, the fees for the PDP has not been decided.
As the PDP has the experience to do the tunnelling works, it has asked the Government to allow it to bid for the project via the Swiss Challenge method.
Via the method, MMC and Gamuda will have the first right of refusal, but the cost will be based on the other companies' bid plus a margin. If they can commit to the selected cost, they will get the job.
Nevertheless, it is not that easy as the other bidders are from South Korea, China and Japan and most of them are government-back companies.
It's a challenge for MMC and Gamuda (to meet the cost structures of these companies).
Going forward
The development of the two other lines of the MRT will overlap the first line. Ultimately, the three lines are expected to be ready by 2020.
As the construction of MRT is not an everyday event, we wanted to fully capitalise on the experience.
We are going to get Malaysian students to learn from this experience.
As for MRT Co, there could other MRT jobs in different cities in Malaysia.
We could also venture into other countries in the region as well.
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