KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): The Transport Ministry said the Johor Bahru elevated autonomous rapid transit (e-ART) project is still finalising its concession terms. Transport Minister Anthony Loke told the Dewan Rakyat that negotiations are ongoing, and the project is expected to be completed within four years after the agreement is signed.

“The terms agreed upon will subsequently be submitted for the consideration and approval of the Cabinet before the concession agreement is signed.

“The e-ART project is expected to be completed within four years from the issuance of the letter of acceptance,” he added.

Among terms under negotiation are financing, the government’s financial commitment and the repayment mechanism under the concession period, Loke noted.

No timeline on when the concession agreement is expected to be inked was disclosed.

The letter of intent for the public-private partnership project was issued to a consortium in May this year, Loke noted.

The consortium comprised DOM Industries (M) Sdn Bhd, MMC Corp Bhd’s indirect wholly owned unit MMC Engineering Sdn Bhd, BTS Group Holdings Public Company Ltd and Ancom Nylex Bhd’s (KL:ANCOMNY) 42.2%-owned Nylex (Malaysia) Bhd.

Loke was responding to a question from Ayer Hitam Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong on the implementation status of the Johor e-ART project, as well as whether the federal government could expedite the project and allocate the Transport Ministry’s development expenditure for this project, as it did for Penang’s Mutiara LRT.

Loke said the government will fund part of the project and that it is committed to expediting the project but noted that it will still take several years to complete.

“It (the Johor Bahru e-ART) was only proposed in May 2024. Within just two years, we already have a letter of intent. The Penang LRT took 30 years before it became a reality,” he said.

“For Johor Bahru, we will do everything we can to expedite it, and the Madani government will certainly continue to give serious attention to the public transport needs of Johor, as well as the other states,” he added.

In the interim, he noted that various traffic mitigation measures have been implemented ahead of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link coming online in January 2027.

This includes a bus service network expansion, a demand-responsive transport system for first-mile and last-mile access, and dedicated bus lanes.

The e-ART project is estimated to cost about RM10 billion, or around RM350 million per kilometre, excluding land acquisition costs. The final cost will depend on the route alignment and system length.

The project replaces the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit (IMBRT), which was first proposed in 2016 with an estimated cost of more than RM2.5 billion. The IMBRT was delayed by the 2018 change in the federal government and the Covid-19 pandemic. Although a pilot programme was launched in 2021, it was shelved in 2022 following changes in both the federal and Johor governments.

After Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi became Johor menteri besar in March 2022, the state shifted to the e-ART proposal in 2024, saying the IMBRT would not sufficiently ease traffic congestion because it would share road lanes with other vehicles.

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