[sustran] Re: monorial in malaysia

[Craig Townsend]

Walter,

I know a bit about the project, but I would be interested to learn more if 
anyone else could add anything (or if anything I've written is inaccurate), 
particularly concerning which entity owns and runs the KL monorail, who 
owns the technology, its performance since opening, etc.

In 1982, a Swiss firm was hired by a government-linked Malaysian company to 
develop a 5 kilometre cableway, an aerial tram running on cables 20 feet 
above the central business and shopping district. In 1983 a Transport 
Planning Committee set up by the Federal Territory Ministry officially 
approved the overhead cable car system which was to be developed by Swiss 
companies, and a technical appraisal of an "Aerobus Pilot Line" was 
produced in the same year. The project didn't progress much further, and in 
the 1990s a turnkey concession contract was signed between the Malaysian 
government and Hitachi of Japan to build a monorail in the same general 
alignment. The project was under construction when the 1997/8 financial 
crisis hit, and liquidity problems for the project led to government 
assistance and "nationalization" to a Malaysian company run by Vincent Tan, 
a Chinese Malaysian tycoon with close links to Prime Minister Mahathir.

More recently, the Malaysian government has been seeking new projects at 
home and abroad for transport infrastructure companies, including companies 
involved with the monorail and the LRTs. Malaysian road 
building/maintenance companies have picked up some contracts in Australia 
and India. The national government has also been pursuing road and bridge 
projects in Penang, where there has been some local opposition to the 
projects. Some government ministers have also suggested that KL-type LRTs 
could be built in Penang, although locals there have been arguing for less 
capital-intensive public transport projects.

Craig


At 12:36 PM 13/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>does anyone have the low down on this monorail project in Kuala Lumpur?  The
>company, Mtrans Holding, has tied up with some indonesian companies and is
>promising to invest $400 million into a monorail in Jakarta.  Mtrans Holding
>seems to be the manufacturer of the rolling stock.  i assume they are
>insulated from the financial consequences of a bankrupcy in the operations.
>does anyone understand the mechanism for this?
>
>walter hook