PUTRAJAYA: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng says that he is unaware of claims that substantial acreage of land was "given" to China under the renegotiated East Coast Railway Link deal. He said that any alleged deal of such nature would have to go through the Cabinet. Blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin's had alleged that while Malaysia got a RM21.5bil reduction in the ECRL project from the original deal, China would get ten times more that in land and development rights. Lim said that for transit-oriented development (TOD), which is a standard development tool for all infrastructure projects, land is not given for free. He pointed out that land was given under TOD for the construction of both MRT and LRT – but not for free.

Source: The Star April 23, 2019 03:45 UTC