While Malaysians are being distracted by the Anwar trial and by those trying to divide us on the basis of ethnicity and religion, big contracts are being dished out, including the last portion of the double-tracking project.
Initially in 2002 the whole North-South double-tracking was supposed to have been handled by China and India at around RM40bn with payment to made in the form of crude palm oil.
In Oct 2003, MMC-Gamuda bagged the job at RM14.3bn but that did not go down well with the foreign parties. Two months later, just after Abdullah Badawi had taken over, the project was shelved.
The project was revived in 2007 and this is the current state of play of the double-tracking contracts:
Padang Besar-Ipoh (329km):
MMC-Gamuda, awarded in 2007, RM12.5bn
Ipoh-Rawang (179km – completed):
Work done by DRB-Hicom (contract terminated after 88 per cent of work) and completed by UEM Construction (per Wikipedia)
Seremban-Gemas (94km):
Indian Railway Construction (Ircon), RM3.5bn
Gemas-Johor Baru (>200km plus transportation hub in JB, perhaps linking up to Singapore MRT):
Chinese government has reportedly nominated three firms to partner local companies
– China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC),
– China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC)
– understood to be a firm partnering Tan Kay Hock, who controls Johan Holdings Bhd and George Kent.
The government has appointed two consultants to conduct studies and to negotiate with the China consortiums.
Estimated cost: > RM7bn
Let’s wait and see which local company is selected to partner a firm from China.
I am just wondering why so many different companies are selected for a north-south railway line that isn’t all that long.
(The above information is extracted from a report that appeared in The Edge, 2-8 May 2011.)
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Everything are under national Security.
Everything are under the Official Secrets Act.
Macc is powerless in all such cases.
No way the public will get to know.
Unless all voters kicks out the current federal govt.
There is no other way.
This project is a waste of money….penny wise, pound foolish…double track on meter gauge so that you dont need to change your rolling stock? Is this somekind of sick , expensive ( 40 billion ringgit) joke !
Meter gauges are nothing more then choo choo trains…….our services were gone , the moment the British left….KTM is a … for UMNO in the form of Hicom, Gamuda, MMC, China Railways and IRCON to (suck) the people dry….. may all of them rot in hell….
Meter gauge is a joke. It is funny that KLIA ERL link is the only one using standard gauge. Some “expert” giving absurd excuses that meter gauge will work, hallucinate that they can counter real world physics. Widen the gauge and use standard gauge are not just about speed, but stability and increase load.
Double-stack rail transport is a reality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-stack_rail_transport
It is impossible to achieve such performance and safety in meter long gauge.
Malaysia in the league of Zimbawe, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, ….being a country full of hidden agenda among the ruling elites.
Anil
We are forever indebted to you for highlighting to us those governmental contracts (especially those dubious ones) while the BN government is trying to sidetrack by ‘wagging the dog’. We surely will not see such reports (and commentary like yours) on mainstream papers which are not worth the price anyway. Keep up with the expose!
how come these news not transparently reported in The Star, Utusan, NST etc ?
looks like only selected folks should know the details while majority penduduk (rakyat ?) are kept in the dark and expected to focus only on “sandiwara”.
Yes, precisely. Why aren’t our newspapers reporting on their front pages (in easy-to-understand language) the award of big contracts to companies and telling their readers exactly who owns these companies?
That’s why we can always count on Anil to give us the necessary insight to issues that are conveniently left out by the mainstream press (that are losing readership).
Big contracts are being dished out to UMNO BN cronies for more that 53 years. To further protect these expensive dishes, they are now trying to divide us on the basis of ethnicity and religion so that these big contracts can being dished out to their own cronies continuosly.
This is one of the biggest failure of Malaysians who allow greedy … and power crazed … come to power for more than 53 years. Let us all wake up and make that CHANGE.
While we are still quarelling over big KTM ets double-tracking contracts – which company or palaces rightly deserve to be given the contract, the Lhasa-Qinghai Rail(1956 km) is already up and running – took 5 years and completed in 2006, apparently 3 years ahead of schedule! Dubbed an “engineering marvel” – rumbled across the ‘roof of the world’ in July 2006. It was no easy feat to build this Lhasa-Qinghai line in a country with 4 seasons, often plagued by extreme cold temperature in high altitude of average 5068 meters above sea-level. It makes one wonder how a simple double-tracking… Read more »
Ipoh to KL is also now running.
Total north-south double-tracking length of the West Coast line (excluding Rawang to Seremban) is over 800km. Yes, such a long time to complete.
Have anyone noticed lately how the double track railway impacted the towns it crossed. Almost all the towns it intersected-the town identity and fabric, not to mention the traffic pattern has been destroyed. For example Alor Setar and Sungai Petani- the town has been divided beyond recognition. People now have to take a longer and torturous route just to get to the other side where once it took just a few minutes (seconds) not to mention spending more time and fuel. Here is one point that nobody really realised. Why can’t they just raise the track on bridges instead of… Read more »
Nevertheless, Lhasa-Qinghai Rail are some sort of “yet another money flood the feet project”. It cost RMB 33 billions， and no sign whether China capable to cover the capital in next 5o years. In addition, the “railway minister”, Liu Zhijun has been kicked out, in 2009, China railroad capital spending has balloon to 700 billion yuan. Such figure means it will take no less than 80 years for China to recover the capital.
Devil is all inside the details. Malaysia railway are cheapo cost saving railroad build by British colonial government. The gauge are 3′ 3.37″ or 1000mm wide, not suitable for high load and increase speed. There is huge benefit Malaysia should use standard gauge. Besides support more load (Some documentary should Amtrack transport double deck of container) and faster speed, it also open Malaysia to better and more economical feasible train options, instead of Brazil trains. It is … stupid to maintain the 1000mm gauge. Nevertheless, since Malaysia is a Bolehland, no one can justify the level of stupidness of policy… Read more »
“In 2003, MMC-Gamuda bagged the job at RM14.3bn but that did not go down well with the foreign parties.”?
Was there any understanding that the project was to be awarded to foreign parties? Why it did not go down well with the foreign parties?