KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Johor’s proposed Light Rail Transit (LRT) project will have at least three lines with their respective terminal stations to be located at Ikea Tebrau, at the Iskandar Puteri area (at either Legoland or Forest City), and at Senai, a report has said.
In the report released on Sunday, local news outlet Oriental Daily cited a source as saying that the entire Johor LRT project is estimated to cost RM20 billion with a total length of 30km and with 50 LRT stations.
According to Oriental Daily, the source said that the Johor LRT will complement the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) rail service which is expected to be completed in 2026.
The source also reportedly said both the LRT and the RTS would form a one-hour metropolitan area in the Johor Baru area and enable those in Johor and Singapore to enjoy a more convenient and fast public transport system while also changing the way they travel.
Oriental Daily also reported the source as saying that the Johor state government has made a preliminary decision on the location for the transportation hub — linking the Johor LRT and RTS — which is expected to be at the Taman Tasik and Danga Bay area.
According to the news report, the first phase of the Johor LRT project would involve the construction of a 10km track linking the LRT’s transportation hub with the RTS’s Bukit Chagar station.
(The RTS is a 4km-long railway shuttle link between two stations, namely Bukit Chagar in Johor and the Woodlands North station in Singapore, with a capacity of 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction and expected ridership of 40,000 passengers per day.)
Oriental Daily also said it understands that the Johor LRT project will be a public-private partnership, with a consortium — led by Malaysian listed firm Nylex (Malaysia) Berhad and including Malaysian property developer LBS Bina Group Berhad and Thailand’s listed company BTS Group Holdings Limited Public Company Limited — expected to invest in the project.
(Previously, Nylex had on March 21, 2022 entered into a heads of agreement with LBS Bina, BTS, Sinar Bina Infra Sdn Bhd and Ancom Nylex Berhad to collaborate on building an LRT system connected with the RTS with an integrated property development under the transit-oriented development concept in Johor Baru. BTS Group Holdings is the majority shareholder of Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company, which is the operator of Bangkok’s rail line BTS SkyTrain.
In the same news report, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd’s (CHEC) Southern Pacific division’s managing director Ma Jianhua told Oriental Daily that the company is working with the Nylex-led consortium with the hope of having the first phase of the Johor LRT project implemented as soon as possible.
CHEC is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Ltd, with its Malaysian unit CHEC Construction (M) Sdn Bhd established in Kuala Lumpur in 1993.
According to Oriental Daily, CHEC Construction (M) Sdn Bhd has been involved in more than 60 projects in Malaysia with a total contract value of more than RM16 billion, and with completed projects including the second Penang bridge or the Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah Bridge, land reclamation works at Port Klang, and works for the extension of the Ampang line for the Klang Valley’s LRT.