Winning bid for Klang Valley MRT rolling stocks to be known in 6 months

(Published in Star Biz 27th December 2011: page 2)

By SHARIDAN M.ALI 

PETALING JAYA: MRT Co expects the award for the rolling stocks of the Klang Valley My Rapid Transit (KVMRT), the biggest infrastructure project in the country, to be made known by the middle of next year.

Chief executive officer Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid said the on-going pre-qualification process for bidders for the rolling stocks would be done by the end of January.

“In the first three quarters of next year, we will busy with the other contracts of the KVMRT such as the elevated portion and track-laying,” he told StarBiz, adding that the most expensive portion of the KVMRT would be known by May next year.

Earlier this year, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd, which would be running the operations after the KVMRT is completed, said that the rolling stocks for the KVMRT would feature four-car train sets which would have the capacity up to 1,200 passengers for each trip.

Although the real cost of the KVMRT would be clearer once all contracts were tendered out, there had been some suggestions that the 51-km line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang would cost around RM30bil.

It was reported that the tunnelling works alone would cost about RM7bil, where five companies had already been pre-qualified to bid for the job, namely Gamuda-MMC Corp, Gadang-Hyundai, China's Sinohydro Group, China Railway Corp and Japan's Taisei Corp.

On other developments of the KVMRT, Azhar said negotiations with affected land and property owners on Jalan Sultan, Jalan Inai and Bukit Bintang were currently at the tail-end.

“We hope to sign the mutual agreement in January. At this point, most of the land owners are agreeable except for a few unique cases that need to be further discussed,” he said.

While Azhar had managed to temporarily “freeze” the land acquisition process that had already begun for the affected prime areas, MRT Co had also quickly identified a win-win solution for the Government and land owners in Jalan Sultan, Jalan Inai and Bukit Bintang.

In a nutshell, the new approach allowed the owners of prime property in the city to keep their property as far as possible as the MRT development would take place underground.

Nevertheless, the affected land and property onwers would be compensated for the loss of business and related costs as they have to vacate their premises when the work, expected to last for about six months, begins.

The Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT will be the first of the three lines of the MRT, which is aimed at easing traffic congestions and promoting the use of public transport in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area.

MRT Co is the developer and asset owner of KVMRT while operations would be run by Prasarana.