Malaysia Airports shortlists 5 firms

Sharen Kaur
Published: 2010/02/25

Frontrunners are said to be the UEM-Bina Puri joint venture, Sunway Construction, the AHT Norlan-Carriage joint venture, IJM Corp and the Gadang-PPC joint venture

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) (5014) has shortlisted five companies to build the main terminal building and satellite tower for the new RM2 billion low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang.

Business Times understands that the
UEM-Bina Puri joint venture,
Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd,
the privately-held AHT Norlan-Carriage joint venture,
IJM Corp Bhd and
the Gadang Holdings-PPC joint venture
are the frontrunners to win the tender.

An MAHB official, who declined to be named, said the five were selected because they had offered the lowest prices for the project and said they could complete the job in 20 months, as outlined by the airport operator.The new LCCT is slated for completion by the third quarter of next year. However, rumours are swirling that it may be delayed by six to 12 months."The tender process took a longer time (than expected). MAHB had pre-qualified many companies and then invited some on a selective basis to tender," the official said.MAHB is evaluating the design and technical aspect of the proposals submitted by the five bidders and will select the best for each building, he added.The official also said that the successful bidders would have to finish the job within schedule.

"MAHB may award the contracts for both buildings in the next one to two months and the two companies are expected to start work immediately."MAHB received bids from 11 companies for the main terminal building job and nine for the satellite tower.It is learnt that other bidders included Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd, Putra Perdana Development Sdn Bhd, Zelan Bhd, Fajarbaru Builder Group Bhd, Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd and the Ikhasas-Saidina joint venture, but they were disqualified on technical grounds.

The price for the job was between RM750 million and RM850 million for the main terminal building, and around RM400 million to RM500 million for the satellite tower.

To date, MAHB has awarded two contracts for the LCCT project.The first, worth RM362 million, was given to WCT Bhd in December last year for works that include site preparation, earthworks and main drainage. A month later, MAHB awarded a RM291 million contract to Gadang to build the 4km Runway 3 and taxiways.The new LCCT will be 1.5km away from the KL International Airport (KLIA) compared with 20km for the existing LCCT. It will be linked to KLIA's main terminal building via the Express Rail Link.

The new LCCT will cater for 30 million passengers a year, with potential to expand its capacity to handle 45 million.