KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 12): Despite concerns over the development of cash-strapped 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) said construction works at the TRX MRT station is on track and will be ready for operations by July 2017.

“As far as we are concerned, our station is on track. We cannot wait until their (TRX) development is over because we are going to complete (the station) so their development has to work around our station.

“That was the understanding we have from the very beginning,” MRT Corp's chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar told theedgemarkets.com after a press conference during MRT Corp's Hari Raya open house here today.

The TRX MRT station is the biggest among seven underground MRT stations along the Sungai Buloh-Kajang route (SBK route/MRT Line 1), which will later be extended to Serdang and Putrajaya (MRT Line 2).

The SBK route covers a distance of 51km with 31 stations, and can accommodate 1.2 million commuters.

In the press conference, Shahril said MRT Corp is working very closely with 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd — the master developer of TRX and wholly-owned unit of 1MDB — when it comes to the design and location of the station.

TRX is an upcoming international financial district. It is spread over 70 acres of prime freehold land minutes from Kuala Lumpur city centre.

Concerns arise over the project’s development after the state-owned strategic investment fund 1MDB, mired in debts of up to RM42 billion after just five years of operation, come under investigation for alleged financial irregularities.

Meanwhile, Shahril also gave assurance that the MRT Line 1 project, on the whole, is on track and due to be fully operational by July 2017, he added.

MRT Corp's SBK route project manager Marcus Karakashian, who was also present at the press conference, said MRT Corp has already negotiated with 1MDB where knockout panels are to be put up so that people from TRX basements can go straight into the MRT basement.

“So their (1MDB's) detailed design will deal with that,” he added.