SPAD to call for proposals soon to develop Klang-KL bus rapid transit

Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah, Chief Executive Officer, Land Public Transport Commission Malaysia (SPAD).

KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) is expected to issue a ‘Request for Proposal’ to construct a bus rapid transit (BRT) line along the Federal Highway latest by early next year.

Chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah said the BRT line would be built from Klang to Kuala Lumpur.

“To improve bus services, we would either invest in enforcement (on normal vehicles taking advantage of bus lanes), or build a dedicated infrastructure, so that we don’t need enforcement. 

“Furthermore, BRT buses are cheaper than the LRT,” he told reporters after presenting a paper titled The Transformation of Malaysia’s Public Transportation at the one-day Affin Hwang Capital Conference Series 2016 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Mohd Azharuddin said the current bus lanes around the city centre were not very effective as buses had to move alongside the traffic.

“BRT buses, however, will have an exclusive right-of-way on a guideway that is not shared with the normal traffic,” he said.

On Uber and GrabCar services, Mohd Azharuddin said SPAD would ensure all rules and regulations applicable to regular taxis would also be imposed on the two services.

“But, we are also looking at making it easier for them (Uber and GrabCar drivers) to operate a legal taxi service,” he said. - Bernama