RM10bil MRT tunnelling job, tender to start this week,

Shahril: ‘We will have 10 main packages compared to eight in the first line.’

KUALA LUMPUR: The tunnelling job for mass rapid transit (MRT) line 2 is expected to be about RM10bil, the most expensive package of the RM28bil project.

The pre-qualifying process for the international open tender will start as soon as this week leading up to its award in the first quarter of next year.

The new 52.2km urban rail artery is mainly known as the Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP) line.

Government incorporated entity MRT Corp Sdn Bhd will be the asset owner of the whole MRT system and is expected to ensure the SSP line is delivered by July 2022 in an effort to ease growing traffic congestion in the capital.

Chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shahril Mokhtar said the tunnelling job with international bidders was expected to take a longer evaluation process of about three months, hence it would be the first package they would be working on.

“Pre-qualification documents will be available next week and we did the design for the tunnelling ourselves,” he told StarBiz recently.

This is different from MRT Line 1 as the design was done by the project delivery partner (PDP), a joint venture between MMC Corp Bhd and Gamuda Bhd. They are also the PDP of the second line.

Shahril said MMC and Gamuda were also allowed to bid this time around via Swiss challenge.

In the first line, the Swiss challenge saw the PDP having the first right of refusal for the job at the lowest bid plus a small 2.5% to 7.5% margin. They competed against other companies from China and Japan.

Shahril pointed out that the PDP, if they decided to bid, would not be involved in any case on the tunnelling job evaluation process.

The tunnel for the SSP line is longer at 13.5km with 36 stations, a bigger job than the 51km with 31 stations in the first line.

Apart from the more expensive tunnel, the SSP line will also offer more main civil engineering and construction packages from the prior line.

“We will have about a total of 10 main packages compared to the eight in the first line,” said Shahril.

He added that the tender packages would be offered in stages from October or November onwards.

Another stark contrast compared to its preceding line, said Shahril, was the higher property plus rail elements in the SSP line.

MRT line 1 only offered two main property developments in Sungai Buloh under Kwasa Land and Tun Razak Exchange under 1 Malaysia Development Bhd as the line would mainly serve already-developed areas.

“And this time around we will do it in parallel with the construction of the stations and lines. We are already talking to a few land-owners and property developers,” said Shahril, adding that this would be an improvement from the first line where the property elements attached to the line was injected later.

The SSP line is the second of the three proposed MRT lines in the Klang Valley MRT project.

As the first phase of the 51km line 1, the Sungai Buloh-Kajang, is expected to be in operation towards the end of next year, Shahril said it was also in discussion with Prasarana Malaysia Bhd that will operate the MRT line.

Shahril said Prasarana would only be the operator and it was still exploring the mechanisms for Prasarana to operate the MRT sustainably.

“It could be cost-plus model where operating cost plus incentives on how efficient the operator is,” he said.