Prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has tabled the 13th Malaysia Plan or Rancangan Malaysia Ketiga Belas (RMK13) today in parliament. RMK13, which has the theme ‘Melakar Semula Pembangunan’ (reshaping developmemt), is the government’s plan and budget for the next five years, till 2030.
Anwar, who is also finance minister, said that RM611 billion will be required to make RMK13 a success. Of this total, RM430 billion will be the government’s allocation for development, while RM120 billion will be contributed by GLCs and GLICs, with the remaining RM61 billion from the private sector via public-private partnerships (PPP). Of the RM430 billion, over half (RM227 billion) will be channeled to the economic sector to spur growth.
The PM touched on public transport in his RMK13 speech, announcing a boost in hardware for urban public transport. He mentioned an extra 300 units of DRT vans (Demand Responsive Transit, now called Rapid KL On-Demand) and 1,200 units of buses to improve first- and last-mile connectivity. That refers to getting people to and from the train stations to their homes.
In January, transport minister Anthony Loke said that DRT vans is a hit and announced that Prasarana will be introducing 300 more vans, so today’s announcement is PMX restating the existing plan.
As for the buses, earlier this month, a batch of 310 new diesel-powered buses joined the Rapid fleet, with the order being the last for internal combustion engine-powered buses. In January, Prasarana said that it was ordering 250 electric buses and there will be more to come for sure. Outside of the big cities, the federal government is expanding BAS.MY stage bus services.
Anwar said today that train frequency will be improved with the addition of 217 passenger train sets. He did not elaborate on the type of type of trains, but ongoing rail projects include the LRT3 a.k.a. Shah Alam Line (scheduled to start operations on September 30), the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL, ready by January 2027) and the recently-approved MRT3 a.k.a. Circle Line, which will complete the Klang Valley’s hub and spoke rail map. Click on the links for the latest official updates on the projects.
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