SERDANG, March 16 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today announced that Transport Minister Anthony Loke is preparing a comprehensive public transportation framework.

Anwar said that once it is ready the framework will be presented to the Cabinet for its implementation.

"I would like to once again thank the transport minister who is preparing a more comprehensive framework and strategy for public transportation that will be presented to the Cabinet and will then be implemented in stages,” Anwar said in his speech at the launch of the Putrajaya Mass Rapid Transit Line (MRT2) Phase Two.

He said that he agreed with Loke that public transportation programmes are a priority.

In his role as the finance minister, Anwar said that public transportation will be a focus of the Budget next year, which had to take a backseat to education and healthcare this year.

He also said that traffic congestion issues could impact the country’s productivity, citing a study from Bangkok that he had read.

"The time taken to reach the workplace is time that causes productivity to be lost.

"An interesting study from Bangkok a few years back showed that billions of dollars are lost from productivity simply because of severe congestion,” he said.

The answer to that issue was public transportation, he concluded.

In a study by digital mapping company TomTom, it was found that drivers in Kuala Lumpur would have lost 159 hours last year on the road during peak hours in the city centre, almost half of which were due to traffic jams.

Malaysians based in the city centre had to spend RM1,023 on petrol for these peak hour trips on their vehicles last year, with about one-fifth or RM221 due to traffic jams.