MMC-Gamuda gets second Mass Rapid Transit line contract

PETALING JAYA: Less than three weeks after the Government announced the implementation of the second mass rapid transit line (MRT2), the job to oversee the multi-billion ringgit project has already been awarded.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MMC Corp Bhd said it and Gamuda Bhd had been appointed the joint-venture company to carry out the MRT2 project.

The two companies said they had received the letter from Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd for the project.

The terms and conditions of the project delivery partner’s (PDP) appointment would be contained in a project delivery partner agreement to be negotiated and agreed, they said.

Noteworthy is that the announcement states that the alignment is from Sungai Buloh to Putrajaya through Serdang.

This comes as a surprise because under Budget 2015, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced that the 56km MRT2 project would be from Selayang to Putrajaya.

This caused some confusion because the depot for the MRT was already being built in Sungai Buloh.

Work on MRT2 is expected to start next year.

But according to the masterplan, it was supposed to start in Sungai Buloh, where the MRT depot is being built, and end in Putrajaya.

Checks with the the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), which is coordinating the entire MRT development, confirmed that the alignment for MRT2 would start from Sungai Buloh.

“This means that there is no need for a spur line to be constructed to connect Sungai Buloh and Selayang,” said a source.

Following the announcement that the alignment for MRT2 would start from Selayang, it was reported that a spur line would be built to connect the Sungai Buloh and Selayang stations.

This is because the depot for the MRT is being built in Sungai Buloh.

The Sungai Buloh depot, possibly the largest in South-East Asia, is designed to have the capacity and support the convergence of two MRT lines. It is being constructed at a cost of RM459.9mil on 65ha at the Rubber Research Institute site.

The contract, which was awarded to Trans Resources Corp Sdn Bhd in May 2012, is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2016.

The MRT2 project is expected to take five years to be completed. It is the second biggest infrastructure project following the RM27bil Pan-Borneo Highway that stretches 1,633km across Sarawak and Sabah, which was also announced under Budget 2015.

The first MRT line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang is more than 50% complete. Most of the civil works are expected to be completed during the course of next year.

A contractor said now that planning works on MRT2 had started, it would keep them busy from 2016 onwards.

“The MRT1 jobs are coming to a tail-end. The MRT2 works should start coming in by 2016 onwards,” said the contractor.

The MRT1 runs for 51km and, upon completion, will have 31 stations serving 1.2 million commuters.

The whole MRT project is proposed to include three lines. The last one is a circle alignment running around the Kuala Lumpur city centre.

The MRT1 project recently drew attention when an accident near Sungai Buloh caused the deaths of three foreign workers.

Following the incident, chief executive officer Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid announced his resignation from MRT Corp on Aug 19, just hours after visiting the site.

Nevertheless, MRT Corp’s board of directors had on Aug 27 decided not to consider his resignation at this juncture, as they had evaluated Azhar’s performance since he became chief executive officer.