KUALA LUMPUR: The construction of the 51-kilometre Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line has reached progress rate of 59.5 percent as at January.

Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Ahmad Maslan, said despite various hiccups, development cost remained within the government’s budget range of RM22.18 billion, as most of the materials were bought locally.

“A total of RM21 billion of the contract had been awarded with 38 work packages worth RM10.6 billion given to Bumiputera contractors,” he told reporters after visiting the MRT Taman Midah construction site.

Also present was Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) CEO, Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar.

The underground section of the MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line was at 73 percent completion as at December 2014, while for the elevated section it was at 49.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Shahril said the company was determined to carry out the MRT Line 2 public display by end-May despite having to “tweak” the alignment.

Shahril said the minor changes to the second line was to accommodate the Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail terminal in Bandar Malaysia.

“With that slight change of alignment, we need to go back on the drawing block and resubmit the new alignment to the Land Public Transport Commission,” he said.