Transport minister Loke Siew Fook said the initiative could improve the quality of public transport services and provide employment opportunities to those unable to afford their own vehicles.

“This is a policy that we will reintroduce, and any party which wants to invest in the taxi and rental car industry can submit an application to the land public transport agency (Apad),” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Meanwhile, Loke said that the ministry had no plans to build a railway network to connect Sarawak, Brunei or Sabah with Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara.

In Sarawak, he said the focus would be on providing urban rail networks under the Kuching Urban Transport System (KUTS) project led by Sarawak Metro.

Meanwhile in Sabah, the focus would be on improving the railway infrastructure and the quality of the transport service led by the Sabah railway department (JKNS).

Touching on the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, he said it was 39.64% complete as of January, with 2023 being the “peak year” of construction involving beam launches, station construction, track laying and others.

Loke added that structural works such as bridges, flyovers and sub-grade activities were being actively carried out along the ECRL alignment.