From left: Penang Hill Corp general manager Datuk Cheok Lay Leng, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and Hartasuma Sdn Bhd executive director Tan Sri Ravindran Menon.
PETALING JAYA: Hartasuma Sdn Bhd has secured the design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) project for the Penang Cable Car project in Penang Hill with a RM250mil investment via a public private partnership (PPP) initiative with the Penang State government.
Hartasuma is a leading local integrated rolling stock and rail services company.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, who is also chairman of Penang Hill Corp, made the announcement during a press conference earlier.
The call for request for proposal (RFP) to solicit the best proposal for the Penang Hill cable car service commenced on Jan 13, 2021, and extended to Nov 30, 2022 due to the pandemic.
Hartasuma will own the concession for this tourist attraction over the next 30 years, where it will be responsible for the BDFOT throughout the period. The project is expected to take three years to complete and be operational.
The company is partnering Austrian-based Dopplemayr Group for this project.
“We are extremely honoured and pleased to have been awarded this project by the Penang state government. We share the same aspiration with the Penang Government, which is to create unique and prestigious tourism destinations within Penang. We look forward to getting to work and make this project happen within the time frame,” executive director Tan Sri Ravindran Menon said in a statement.
For the Penang cable car project, the cable car system will have a capacity of 1,000 passengers per hour at a speed of 6 meters per second, using 43 gondola cabins.
There will be a total of 15 towers along the line, and the journey time from lower to upper station will take 10 minutes.
