The North-East MRT line : financial and economic appraisal

Abstract

It is the government's aspiration to achieve a target whereby 75% of all trips are made by public transport. The extension of the MRT to the North-East is one of the ways in which the government hopes to attain this objective. However, the government has always taken a prudent and conservative approach to all public transport projects. Public transport projects are only carried out if all the financing principles are satisfied. This paper attempts to provide an insight on the financial appraisal of the North-East Line (NEL). The revision of the financing framework will expedite the construction of the North-East Line. A simple economic appraisal will also be done in, the later part of this paper, which shows that despite constraining ourselves to only two intangible benefits - time savings and comfort, the NEL is still economically viable.