George Kent-led group on track for RM1b project

By Sharen Kaur

sharen@nstp.com.my

Published in NST on July 8 2011

A consortium headed by George Kent Bhd has emerged as the odds-on favourite to win a contract worth more than RM1 billion to help undertake system works for the light rail transit (LRT) Ampang line extension project.

 
Other members of the consortium include local engineering firm Global Rail Sdn Bhd, Lion Pacific Sdn Bhd, Bombardier Signalling, China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) and Tewet GmbH, a project management consultant company.

Business Times understands that the George Kent-led consortium was the second lowest bidder, having placed a bid at RM1.13 billion to undertake the job.

The tender for the system work on the proposed Ampang line closed on June 16. It is further learnt that some eight companies were invited to bid for the job.

Subsequently, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd had invited the companies to make their presentations between June 22 and June 24.


Bids submitted for the job were between RM950 million and RM1.45 billion.

People familiar with the matter said Prasarana has shortlisted four companies after the presentations were made.

The other three firms are SNC Lavalin/WW Engineering, Siemens/Scomi and Samsung/LG.

Their bids were priced at RM1.38 billion, RM1.17 billion and RM1.16 billion, respectively.

"They were shortlisted based on having offered the best technical solution and the most efficient way of managing the signalling migration plan so as not to interrupt

the current train operation during the project implementation stage," the source told Business Times, adding that Prasarana has budgeted RM1.5 billion for the system works.

The budgeting was done by UK consultant Halcrow/HSSI.

The other four contenders who did not make it were Colas/CMC/Uniway joint venture, the partnership which recently won a RM673.9 million contract for system works for the Kelana Jaya line; Invensys Rail/Ingress/Balfour Beatty; Posco/Daewoo and Ansaldo/Emrail.

It is learnt that Colas/CMC/Uniway offered the highest price. The lowest bidder at RM950 million was Invensys Rail/Ingress/ Balfour Beatty, which had also bid for the Kelana Jaya line extension.

According to the source, the Ansaldo joint venture was not shortlisted as the company (Ansaldo) already has a contract to work on the Ipoh-Padang Besar double tracking project.

Invensys Rail was also not chosen as it too has a contract for the Seremban-Gemas double tracking project where it is currently facing ongoing issues and delays in the project implementation. 

-ENDS-