Thursday, July 12, 2012

Plan to raise non-fare revenue to 30pc

By Sharen Kaur
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on July 12, 2012


KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd aims to increase its non-fare revenue from about seven per cent currently, to some 30 per cent, in five years.

Currently, Prasarana earns about RM30 million a year from its non-fare revenue and its venture into property development will help to increase that by more than fourfold.

Prasarana was set up by the government under the Ministry of Finance Inc, to facilitate, undertake and expedite public infrastructure projects.

Its group of companies are also asset owners and operators of several public transport projects like the Ampang and Kelana Jaya light rail transit (LRT) lines, KL Monorail, as well as bus operations in Klang Valley and Penang.


These assets, including the non-fare revenue like monorail and bus advertisements, gives Prasarana around RM400 million in revenue, a year.

"Venturing into the property development business will open new and constant non-fare revenue income for the group. The fares for public transport are highly structured, and ours have not been reviewed for the last 10 years.

"Wherever there are opportunities to capitalise on the assets that we have, we will go for it. Property development is a good sustainable business for the group," said Prasarana group managing director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar.

Prasarana has about 8.4ha of undeveloped land along its Ampang and Kelana Jaya light rail transit (LRT) lines in the Klang Valley.

The parcels of land are located in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Ara Damansara, Jalan Tun Sambanthan in Brickfields, Jalan Dang Wangi, Putra Heights and Taman Melawati.

Prasarana is awarding contracts to property developers on an open tender basis to help develop the land.

It has so far entered into a joint venture between Crest Builder Holdings Bhd and Detik Utuh Sdn Bhd to redevelop the Dang Wangi LRT station in Kuala Lumpur into a mixed commercial development worth RM1.04 billion.

It has also inked a joint-venture agreement with Naza TTDI Ventures Sdn Bhd to develop land in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

On reports that its Langkawi cable car business in Kedah, currently run by its subsidiary Panorama Langkawi, would be taken over by the Langkawi Development Authority, Shahril said the two groups are still in talks on how to move forward.

"There is a possibility for it to let go, but we will make an announcement soon," he said yesterday, after inking the joint venture with Naza TTDI Ventures.

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