KUCHING, July 20: A wholly owned subsidiary of Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd managed to achieve a new milestone with the award of the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) Project’s System Package 1 contract.
A statement from Sarawak Metro Sdn Bhd said, the award ceremony was held on 18 July 2022 and was witnessed by Minister of Transport Sarawak, YB Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin, who was representing the Premier of Sarawak YAB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg.
The System package 1 contract is a joint venture between EPR EPR Mobilus GR JV Sdn Bhd, CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Company Limited and CIMC-Hexagon Hydrogen Energy Systems Limited (suppliers of the hydrogen-powered ART vehicles); Thales (supplier of the signalling and control system); Fangda Innotech Company Limited (supplier of the automatic platform gate); and DOM Industries (M) Sdn Bhd and CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Company Limited (supplier of the depot equipment and maintenance vehicles).
The System Package 1 contract is valued at RM1.425 billion, including the supply of the rolling stock, which is the hydrogen-powered Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) vehicles, depot equipment and maintenance vehicles (DEMV), signalling and control system (S&CS) and the automatic platform gate (APG).
Sarawak Metro’s Chief Executive Officer Technologist Mazli Mustaffa presented the Letter of Award to EPR Mobilus GR JV Sdn Bhd’s directors, Syahrir Iman bin Suib, Chan Chee Kian and Wilson Fan.
During the ceremony, the Premier said the collaboration with these companies will help to achieve the aspiration of solving the issues of climate change by introducing a sustainable public transport.
He also pointed out that the recent milestone is also a very crucial achievement for China, as the country of origin of the supplier of the ART system and it gives an opportunity to strengthen the bilateral economic relationship between Malaysia – through Sarawak – with China.
He highlighted that Sarawak is moving one step ahead as the Autonomous Rapid Transit’s (ART) propulsion system will be powered by hydrogen – in line with Sarawak’s green hydrogen agenda and the development of Sarawak’s hydrogen economy.
The Premier was pleased that the achievement will allow a new generation of young Sarawakian to gain new knowledge and skills in this new industry to develop the human capital and supply chain, which ensure the sustainability and long-term success of the ART operations.
He also announced that the government recently approved Sarawak Metro’s proposal for the ART alignment for Phase 1 of the KUTS Project, which will now include a new line towards the Santubong Peninsula.
“Although this new alignment will be about 20 kilometres longer than the one proposed earlier by Sarawak Metro, we have managed to keep the overall cost of the project to below RM6 billion, through Sarawak Metro’s ongoing value engineering initiative.” he added.
Meanwhile in his opening speech, SEDC Chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr) Haji Abdul Aziz bin Dato Haji Husain described the awarding of the Letter of Award as not only the start of the development of KUTS but also signify the transformation of Sarawak’s public transportation system.
He also pointed out that 18 July 2022 also marked another milestone with the closing of System Package 2 tender which involves telecommunications, supervisory control and data acquisition, automatic fare collection, computerised maintenance management system, operation control centre and information technology system.”
At the same event, Sarawak Metro also exchanged MoU documents with Ibraco Bhd and Peranan Makmur Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Naim Holdings Bhd, towards collaborations to develop ART stations near their property developments, namely The NorthBank and Kuching Paragon, respectively.
Mazli represented Sarawak Metro for the exchange of the MoU documents, with Ibraco represented by its Group Managing Datuk Chew Chiaw Han and Peranan Makmur represented by Peranan Makmur Director Datuk Haji Abang Abdul Wahap bin Haji Abang Julai.
Among the guests present at the event were His Excellency, Xing WeiPing, the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kuching, board members of Sarawak Metro and business associates. -TVS
