MRCB and Sunway win LRT extension contracts

The Star 17 Aug 2011

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) and Sunway Holdings Bhd have won contracts worth RM1.33bil and RM569mil for the light rail transit extension of the Ampang line and Kelana Jaya line respectively from Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB).


In separate statements yesterday, Sunway and MRCB said the contracts for the construction and completion of facilities (Package B) were awarded to their respective wholly-owned units - Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd and MRCB Engineering Sdn Bhd (MESB).

Sunway said it expected the contract to boost its construction order book to approximately RM2.5bil.

“Under Package B awarded to Sunway Construction, the facilities works will involve the construction and completion of facilities along a 8.1km route from Persiaran Kewajipan, Subang Jaya to Putra Heights.

The works include site clearance, earthworks, viaduct construction, roadworks, drainage works, traffic management, structural works and temporary works.

“The project is expected to contribute positively to the Sunway group's earnings for the financial year ending 2012 onwards. Works on the project is estimated to be completed in 29 months from the date of possession of the site,” it said.

In a separate development, Sunway Holdings also said it has been shortlisted by SPNB to bid for all the Mass Rapid Transit packages under the open category which includes elevated civil works, stations and depot.

MRCB told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that its contract from SPNB would involve the construction and completion of facilities works that include the fabrication and delivery of segmental box girders (Package B) for the Ampang line extension project. The construction period will be 30 months from the date of possession of site.

MRCB also said the SPNB had awarded MESB, the sub-contract for the fabrication and delivery of segmental box girders (Package B) for the Kelana Jaya line extension project. MESB is a nominated sub-contractor to Sunway Construction for the sub-contract worth RM67.2mil.

The construction period for the works is 20 months.

11 named to oversee KLIFD project

The Star 18 Aug 2011

PETALING JAYA: The RM26bil Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD) will be overseen by 11 local and foreign consultants appointed by 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MBD) to push forth the development of the project.

1MDB said in a statement yesterday that the consulting companies were appointed based on their experience and track record in their fields such as sustainability, infrastructure, engineering, landscape planning and traffic management.

In March, 1MDB carried out a pre-qualification and request for proposal process through its subsidiary 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd.

Among the selected local companies are traffic management consultant Perunding Trafik Klasik Sdn Bhd, quantity surveyorPerunding NFL Sdn Bhd, landscape architectAkitek Jururancang Malaysian Sdn Bhd and land surveyors Jurukur Perpaduan Sdn Bhdand Jurukur ESA Sdn Bhd.

The infrastructure engineering consultants are EDP Consulting Group Sdn Bhd and Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, a UK and US consultant which also acts as KLIFD's sustainability consultant.

Others include security and risk engineers ARUP Jururunding Sdn Bhd(from Malaysia) and ARUP Group International, a Hong Kong-based company. A consultant from Qatar, KEO International Consultants, was selected as programme management adviser.

The appointments are in addition to the two master planners named recently, Akitek Jururancang Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Machado Silvetti & Associates, selected from an international design competition.

1MDB Real Estate chief operating officer Datuk Azmar Talib said that the appointments were based on global practices and that the committee was “thorough and transparent in the selection process”.

“Given the scale of the development and its impact on national growth, we seek not just capability and capacity but people who also share our vision for a sustainable and holistic KLIFD and our passion to deliver a Greater Kuala Lumpur,” he was quoted.

1MDB owns the 30.35ha on which the KLIFD will be developed. As one of the entry-point projects under the Economic Transformation Programme, the KLIFD aims to attract financial institutions and global companies to complement other financial centres in the region.

The entire financial district is slated to be completed in two decades, with its first phase operational by 2016. Azmar has expressed hopes to integrate the development of the KLIFD with the country's mass rapid transit system which is slated to commence operations in the same year.

Azmar added that the selection of consultants for Bandar Malaysia, a KLIFD twin development in Sungai Besi will also undergo the same rigorous process.

Prasarana shortlists 28 for MRT works

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd, the project owner of Malaysia's biggest rail infrastructure project, My Rapid Transit (MRT), has shortlisted 28 individual and joint-venture companies that can bid for various elevated civil works, stations and depot packages under the multi-billion ringgit project.

In a statement yesterday, Prasarana group managing director Shahril Mokhtar said these tenders would be called in stages beginning from next month until December 2012.

"Tender for the first stage, which involves two civil works packages, will be issued early next month," Shahril said.

The two packages are a 5.4km stretch from Taman Bukit Ria to Plaza Phoenix in Cheras and the other covering a 5.2km stretch from Taman Suntex to Bandar Tun Hussein Onn.
There are 18 packages with eight packages under elevated civil works, another eight for elevated station works and two for depot.

These packages are divided into two categories - the open category and the Bumiputera category.

Applicants were evaluated based on their financial capabilities, track record, experiences, existing management staff and key personnel, the average annual construction turnover in the last five years, their existing plant and equipment as well as their existing quality, safety, health and environment practices.

For joint-venture submissions, technical and financial evaluations were carried out on the individual companies with the total score of their technical and financial points combined based on their equity percentage.

The pre-qualification exercise attracted strong response with 286 companies purchasing the tender document which was opened through two public advertisements by Prasarana with a total of 195 companies submitting their appli-cations.

Hailed as the country's biggest infrastructure project as part of the Greater Klang Valley Master Plan, the MRT would provide the backbone service to the existing public transportation system and would be integrated with the existing LRT, KL Monorail and KTM services. 

To cut through the city centre from Sungai Buloh to Kajang, the new MRT will run for some 51km including 9.5km through underground tunnels and will be serviced by 27 elevated stations and seven stations underground; and depots at Sungai Buloh and Kajang. 

"Tenders for the other packages will be announced in due course," added Shahril.

Study on KL-S'pore high-speed rail

KUALA LUMPUR: A pre-feasibility study for Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) system will be concluded in a few weeks, Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) director Ahmad Suhaili said.

“The findings of this study will allow the Government to decide on where to place key stations.

“However, a more detailed study would have to follow to further refine the project's plan,” he said at a briefing on half-year results for six focus areas in the Government Transformation Programme.

Ahmad heads both the Urban Public Transport national key results area (NKRA) and Greater Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley national key economic area (NKEA).

It was also revealed that the My Rapid Transit (MRT) system will have independent monitors to ensure proper delivery and governance of the RM20bil intra-city rail project.

Pemandu director for Corruption NKRA Ravindran Devagunam said the monitoring would be from “cradle to the grave”, adding that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Auditor-General (AG) would be the monitors from the public sector.

He said this would be the first time the AG was involved in the oversight mechanism at the beginning of a project rather than at the end, which was the usual practice.

Pemandu is also looking at enlisting professional bodies, engineers and non-governmental organisations as independent monitors for the MRT.

In March, the Land Public Transport Commission, which oversees the implementation of the MRT and HSR, announced the appointment of consulting firm McKinsey as the Government's value management study consultant to scrutinise the plans and obtain optimum cost efficiency for the MRT.

The MRT and HSR are both large-scale projects under the Economic Transformation Programme.

The HSR, estimated to cost RM8bil to RM14bil, will stretch about 400km and reduce travelling time between KL and Singapore to 90 minutes from the current seven hours.

However, analysts have said that a key challenge facing the Government in these projects was coming up with the required funding.

In the MRT's case, it was reported that the Government will create a special-purpose vehicle to raise bonds to finance the project.

Analysts said bonds issued by the Government would be deemed as part of government debt by some rating agencies.

“The more bonds issued by the Government, the higher our debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which is an indicator used by rating agencies to determine a country's sovereign rating,” a fixed-income analyst said.

On the HSR, analysts said its cost would put a drag on the Government's finances, suggesting instead that enhancing KTM Bhd's existing services and infrastructure might be a better option. - The Star 5 Aug 2011