KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government will take back the land used for the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) project if its ownership had been transferred to any party.
The prime minister said anyone who wanted to acquire land needed to go through the due process.
“Yes ... we will demand the land back. If there was a transfer by any party they must go through the due process,” he told a press conference after chairing the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Presidential Council meeting, here today.
Dr Mahathir said this when asked to comment on claims that one of the five plots of land for the RTS project had been transferred to the Sultan of Johor during the reign of the Barisan Nasional government.
Asked whether the land was bought by the Sultan of Johor, he said the government did not receive a full report on the matter.
“We (the government) heard the rumours from the press that the land has been taken over by the Sultan of Johor. About payment we do not know,” he said.
The PH government in early April applied for a six-month extension until September from Singapore to decide on the RTS project.
The bilateral agreement on the project was signed in January 2018 during the previous administration.
The project was initially scheduled to commence this year and was expected to be completed by December 2024.
Asked whether the government was willing to buy back the land from the Sultan of Johor, Dr Mahathir replied: “If he (Sultan of Johor) has paid, of course we have to buy it back but if he hasn’t paid then we won’t buy back ... it is our land. We require that land for the purpose of building necessary buildings,” he said.
The Prime Minister also dismissed the notion that the issue would reignite tension between the government and the Johor palace.
“There’s no tension, what tension?” he said.
Asked whether the six-month extension had anything to do with allegations of the land ownership by the Sultan of Johor, Dr Mahathir said: “I don’t think His Highness would want to seize federal land. We will have to file claims to show that it belonged to us.
Earlier, Dr Mahathir explained that the government had requested the six-month extension to review whether the RTS project would continue or the government would submit another proposal.
“... but the RTS clearly does not solve the traffic congestion between Singapore and Malaysia. If we build the train it can’t carry all the passengers who are going to and from Singapore and it can’t carry all the motorcycles. The train is limited in terms of capacity,” he said.
The RTS project if implemented will include a 4km rail linking Bukit Chagar, Johor Baru and Woodlands, Singapore, with a capacity to ferry 10,000 passengers per hour. - Bernama
