Action must be taken against those who withheld crucial information from relevant ministry officials over the site where KLIA2 is currently being constructed at a substantially higher cost, said DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua.
He alleged that Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) had intentionally chosen not to disclose the information to the officials, despite knowing full well that KLIA West was unsuitable for airport construction and would incur a substantially higher cost, from the originally estimated RM1.7bil in 2007 to RM3.9bil last year.
"The 1992 Master Plan had clearly stated that 'the western part of the site mainly comprises saturated marine clays with an overlay of peat material'.
"It also said that 'the combination of the drainage problems and the type of material means that the western part of the site has poor bearing qualities and is not suitable for airport construction without undertaking significant engineering measures to improve load bearing capacity'," he told a press conference here Wednesday.
He said MAHB had failed to highlight the fact that the new KLIA2 would cost substantially more due to reasons that had already been identified in the 1992 KLIA Master Plan at a presentation to the Finance, Home and Transport Ministries officials on April 15, 2008.
Based on the presentation documents and the minutes of the meeting, he said, MAHB had instead made a 360-degree turn by recommending KLIA West as the new site for the new lost-cost terminal.
At an earlier meeting on July 6, 2007, Pua said MAHB had reconfirmed that KLIA North was the best option available to build the new KLIA2.
When contacted, MAHB Operation Services senior general manager Azmi Murad declined to comment on the matter.
