MRCB-George Kent JV inks LRT 3 deal with Prasarana

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd and its partner George Kent Bhd have signed a contract agreement with Prasarana Malaysia Bhd for the Light Rail Transit Three (LRT 3) Project. 

MRCB announced to Bursa Malaysia on Friday about the signing of the fixed price contract for the designing, building and commissioning of the LRT 3 from Bandar Utama to Johan Setia in Klang.

The announcement confirmed a report by StarBiz on Jan 18 about the signing of the agremeent between the JV and Prasarana, which is the project owner of LRT3.

StarBiz also reported MRCB-George Kent Sdn Bhd (MRCBGK), unpaid contractors are also slated to receive their outstanding payments by the month’s end.

Prasarana, has not paid the sub-contractors for work done since February last year.

The cumulative amount owed is believed to be over RM1bil if claims up to December last year are taken into account, sources said.

The agreement, to be restructured from a project-delivery-partner (PDP) model to a “fixed-price contract”, was supposed to be executed by Dec 12, 2018, based on a Bursa Malaysia filing.

Work on LRT3 slowed down in October last year, pending the signing of a new contract following a review of the project by the Pakatan Harapan government.

In July last year, the government approved the continuation of the 36km-long track at a final cost that was reduced by 47% to RM16.63bil. The government said it would do away with the PDP model and revert to the turnkey model, while the completion date was extended from 2020 to 2024.

Besides the joint venture of MRCB and George Kent as the main contractor, other listed companies that were involved in the project include Mudajaya Group Bhd, WCT Holdings Bhd, IJM Corp Bhd and Sunway Construction Group Bhd.