“You could built 11 schools with the money it costs for each kilometre of the new Kinrara-Puchong Expressway (Kidex),” exclaims DAP Member of Parliament for Beruas, Ngeh Koo Ham.

Ngeh explained that for the cost of one km of the Kidex highway, the same amount of money could be used to build 11 schools.

At a whopping RM2.2 billion for 50km, Kidex will cost RM44 million per km. Calculating the cost of a primary school to be RM10 million, each km of Kidex costs as much as 11 schools!

The estimated cost is highly inflated when compared with the PLUS North South Highway which cost RM6.6 billion for all 898km.

The contract to build Kidex has been awarded to Emrail Sdn Bhd and Zabina Sdn Bhd, companies linked with former Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi and current UMNO Legal Advisor Datuk Hafarizam Harun.

Zaki’s wife, Toh Puan Nik Sazliza Mohd Zain is a director at Emrail Sdn Bhd, while Hafarizam is a director of both firms.

Zaki has a 58 per cent stake in Emrail, formerly known as TIME Salam Engineering before it chose to forgo its diversified portfolio in favor of becoming a specialized railway engineering company.

The other substantial shareholder of the company is Director of Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia, Tan Sri Hari Naryanan, who was alleged by blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) to be “Samy Vellu’s proxy”.

Hafarizam represented UMNO in the case against Pakatan Rakyat during the infamous Perak Constitutional Crisis of 2009. During the case to decide the legality of the Perak state government following several crossovers (which BN eventually won), then Chief Justice and former UMNO Legal Advisor Zaki did not sit on the panel but ordered his number-2, Alauddin Md Sheriff to chair it.

RPK alleged that the lucrative award was a “reward for giving Perak back to UMNO”.

Bernama reports that Emrail has also set its sights on the 330 km Northern Double-Tracking Project (between Ipoh and Padang Besar) and the 298 km Southern Double-Tracking Project (between Seremban and Johor Bahru)

Ngeh said that all Malaysian are entitled to transparent disclosure of the award, adding that the MACC should act upon the report lodged regarding this matter on 2^nd March 2012. –The Rocket