KL-Putrajaya Highway...is it privatised?

As far as I could remember the KL-Putrajaya Highway which starts at the Kg Pandan Roundabout, goes through Sri Petaling and the Commonwealth Games Village, and ends up at the Elite Highway Putrajaya interchange link (the elevated portion that rounds around Cyberjaya) was supposed to be a toll-free road and funded fully by the government. That was one of the reasons why the project was shelved in the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998 due to lack of funds, and was only restarted sometime in 2002. This is the highway that is built perilously close to the houses in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling causing severe damage and such, and which the Parliamentary Accounts Committee led by Datuk Shahrir Samad made a visit to the site, confirmed the problems and suggested the project be stopped, raised the ire of Samy Vellu, and more recently suggested the government to repossess the affected properties and pay compensation.

All this mess came about because when the project was approved by EPU to begin in 1998, DBKL went ahead and approved the housing development project in that same plot of land with complete disregard to the alignment of the proposed highway, and did so because the highway project was postponed and they could have thought it will never happen. So, land was "lost" by the proposed highway to the houses, so to speak. You can read more on the plight of the Sri Petaling residents here. But what I want to ask is when was this supposed federal government funded RM1.2bil highway to Konsortium Lapangan Terjaya Sdn Bhd? According to the website of the concessionaire, the concession period is 33 years commencing from 28 Oct 2003. Maybe I have not been following the news on this controversial highway so I could have missed the privatisation announcement. I only realized it has become another private-tolled-highway when I saw what looked like toll-gates being constructed on the highway, and a big project signboard at the Putrajaya link stating it as a "projek pengswastaan". But it looks like the Sri Petaling folks know better...the concession agreement was supposedly signed in 1997. Maybe the perception that the highway was supposed to be toll free since it's fully government funded was a mirage after all, or I have mistaken it to be the same as that Highway 2020 which was to connect KL with Putrajaya as well.