KL People-Mover Rapid Transit

Cancelled

The government of Malaysia awarded a 30-year concession for the construction and operation of the Kuala Lumpur Peoples Rapid Transit (KL PRT) monorail to KL PRT Sdn Bhd in November 1996. KL PRT is a unit of KL Linear City with a 99-year lease to build a high-tech development, and is owned by Berjaya Group. Construction of phase 1 of the 16km monorail started in January 1997. This monorail will connect to the already operational STAR LRT, and other urban rail systems in Kuala Lumpur. The initial project cost of M$2,700 million (US$ 694.4 million) came from a M$1.4 billion loan, company equity, and government loans. In 1997, East Asian financial crisis raised the cost of the project and led to cessation of work in December 1997. In July 1998, M Trans Holdings joined the project, locally manufacturing its own rolling stock and completing the project with reduced cost. The 8.6 km-long monorail was completed by KL Infrastructure Group (KLIG) at a cost of M$1,180 million (US$ 303.4 million) and was opened to the public in 2003. KLIG was rewarded a 40-year concession to operate the monorail. KLIG suffered the losses from depreciation and interest repayment costs since the beginning of the KL Monorail's operations. In December 2006 the KLIG agreed on the takeover of its KL Monorail assets and liabilities to National Infrastructure Company (Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd., SPNB), which already owned both the Kelana Jaya Line(or PUTRA) and the Ampang Line (or STAR), as well as 10% of KLIG shares. In May 2007, KL Monorail was issued a default notice, due to the repeated failure of loan repayment to the Development Bank of Malaysia (Bank Pembangunan Malaysia, BPM) which requested total repayment of M$ 901 million for total principal sum and interests of the infrastructure loan KL Infra had taken in 2004. In November 2007, SPNB has signed a sale and purchase agreement with KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd, effectively making SPNB the operator of KL Monorail.