RM2bil Roads for Sarawak

Looking at the rate the dams are being planned and constructed, make me wonders, if any body ever thought through and consider the needs of such project. There were report that even the Bakun Dam will meet the energy needs of Sabah and Sarawak by 300%.

About 10 years ago, we we shocked by schools being built without students. Building projects are good to generate income for the construction companies, but let make sure it is beneficial.

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The tender for the major roads in Sarawak were closed in Aug and Oct 2010. The construction firms from Sarawak and the peninsular were among the bidders. The roads cited were the access road to the proposed hydro electric dams in Kapit and Limbang.

The evaluation for the bidders are being done by PWD.

The road will include the followings:

a. 73 km access to the Balleh dam in Kapit

b. 63 km road to Baram hydro dam

c. 22 km road to Limbang hydro dam

d. 136 km road to Nanga Merit coal mine in Kapit.

The roads are being funded by rm 4 bil allocations made Economic Planing Unit

The first of the six projects was tendered (?open or closed tender) was the rm 645 mil project for 62km road access Bintulu Bakun. IJN won 2 segments and Loh&Loh secured one package.

The 944 MW is on the upstream of 2,400 MW Bakun dam. It is developed by Sarawak Energy Bhd.

SEB is also involved in Limbang 160 MW dam scheduled to complete in 2012, BBaram dam 1000 MW in 2015 and Balleh 900MW in 2016.

Other proposed project are the Mukah Airport, the extension of Tanjung Manis Airport and the Skill Training Institute.

Puduraya bus station

project planned - rm53mil /Time apr - dec 10 /Scope-

Puduraya Bus Station is the main bus and taxi terminal for Kuala Lumpur. Its abrupt closure last year had brought many complaints. Things were chaotic and solutions had to be found past. Thus temporary terminals were found in a number of locations including Bukit Jalil.

The news that it will be opened in on 2 Feb are welcomed by the traveling travelling public.

The problems before the renovation.

1. passengers complaint about the poor condition of the terminal.

2. The ventilation was poor, the smoke from the bus gets into the passengers waiting area on the first floor.

3. Lack of facilities

4. The operation of tickets touts

The upgrade are suppose to resolve the issues and the new puduraya bus station will provide the improved services for the travelling public. The passengers will be benefiting from the following improvements.

1. escalators will be provided for the needs of the publics.

2. The passengers area will be fitted with aircondition. The smokes from buses will be channeled away from the passengers.

3. More tickets counters will be made available.

The bus parking area is bigger and there will no need for the buses to parked on the roadside and block the traffic.

The improved puduraya bus station should be able to handle the current volume of traffic. The concerns would be the hidden issues, which had surfaced out and hindered the operation of station like Bandar Tasik Selatan

The paper thestar newspaper had published the story on this.

The picture is from thestar newspaper.

ref: http://www.starproperty.my/PropertyScene/TheStarOnlineHighlightBox/9703/0/0

penang top in investment

MIDA had released the figures which had been the people of the Island of Penang happy. Penang is attracting the biggest capital investment in Malaysia.

In 2010, Penang had attracted investments amounting to rm12.2 billions. The sum makes up of rm2.8bil new investments and rm9.4bil of expansion to the existing business.The figure is 465% higher than 2009. It represents a five fold increase from the 2009 figure of 2.2 billions.

Receiving the good news, Penang Chief Minister, Guan Eng expressed his happiness and was proud that Penang had shown great improvement. Currently Penang contributed to 26% of the total country's investment.

In a different subject, the CM welcomed the move by PAC to investigate the Pulau Jerejak failed project under the previous BN government.

ulu jelai hydroelectric project

TNB was awarded with the rm2.15 ulu jelai hydroelectric project. The project involved the construction of a dam, 2 water transfer and an underground power house for 186MW. The project timeline is five years to be completed in 2016.

The agreements were made with two companies. You are welcomed to check if these two companies are newly registered for the specified purpose.

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a. Tindakan mewah sendirian Bhd

b. Salini Costruttori SpA consortium.

for main civil, electrical and mechanical work. Contract value rm2.5 bil

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The first agreement will be with SMEC International Pty Ltd for engineering design, civil, electrical and mechanical work

Welcome to SMEC
SMEC is a professional services firm with Australian origins and a global footprint that provides high-quality consultancy services on major infrastructure projects. SMEC has over 4,000 employees and an established network of over 40 offices in Australia, Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Asia Pacific. SMEC provides consultancy services for the lifecycle of a project, to a broad range of sectors including: Transport; Water; Natural Resources and Environment; Buildings, Urban Development and Local Government; Energy and Renewables; and Social Development.

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The new hydroelectric project will increase the TNB asset by 7.1%.

Terminal Bandar Tasik Selatan

I had been watching the "progress" or rather the situation at Integrated Terminal Bandar Tasik Selatan and cannot help but to wonder how we had trapped ourself into this situation. The assurance given was, the terminal will be at full swing on Jan 2010.

As reported in the paper, as on 18 Jan, only nine out of 51 bus operators had moved use the terminal. The crowd was not there. There seem to be confusion where to go to board the bus.

The terminal is supposed to be very advanced equipped with the modern facilities and technology. Perhaps the peoples are not being given the full story, there are some hidden x-factors and only the rosy news are given to the public. Why are the operators not willing to move??.

I can see two basic issues:

1. The Terminal Bandar Tasik Selatan is overbuilt, over costed and overspent.
2. The mindset of the authorities is that of the Master and Slaves. They think that they, the authority are the master, and the buses operators and passengers are the slaves.

1. Over built complex.
Do you really need the expansive terminal with expansive tiles and facilities. I was surprise when I visited Sydney and saw their small monorail. It was small and can be attached to an existing shopping complex. I thought they are being practical, as monorail are for transportation and not meant to win any international awards.

Similarly if we go to London, we see the tubes, there is only one system. Their lines maybe 1000 times longer than us. We can boost of having multisystem, LRT, the Star and will be MRT and monorail and communter and railway. If any awards we can get is the award on the number of system, but at the end it was return to the government to run them.

2. Master and slave relation.
There seem to be surcharges, RM1 plus the rm10 per entry and rm10 for the exit. It seem a small amount,but again we do not know the total revenue and expenses of the buses. The CVLB had given the directive to all the buses concerned to move by 31 Jan.

There seem to be problem on the ticket systems. may be that had been addressed.

I remember the same chaos happened when the terminal of the airport moves to KLIA. Bags were not loaded as the systems fails. The information system failed and passenger do not know where their aircrafts were. Even the pilots were having hard time to find their aircrafts.

However, as I said earlier, these are not the concerned of the Masters, because they main job is to please the bigger MASTER. My perception is, the same problem is being faced by Terminal Bandar Tasik Selatan

jerejak project

According to the paper on 19 Jan 2011, PAC chairman wanted the Auditor- General to prepare a financial report on the Jerejak Project. This is an opportunity for Koh to clear his name, he has nothing to fear if he has nothing to hide.

Earlier the PAC was chairing a meeting on the report of Politeknik Muadzam Shah in Pahang which took 10 years to complete with cost overrun to rm10.

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One of the political issues is regarding the failed jerejak project. Jerejak was known as a prison island build the colonial British situated on the south of Penang.

It started on 15 jan 2010 when Lim demanded an explanation from Koh on the failed Jerejak project. The project was to develop TIR, Tropical Island Resort in partnership with UDA, Urban Development Authority, a federal agency. The project was suspended, the the stage of development is know to Dr Koh alone.

Koh answered on 17 saying that the project was a victim to world global crisis and 911,.. Quote from paper.."Dr Koh, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, cited the world financial crisis, the Sept 11 World Trade Centre tragedy in the United States and the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003 for the losses".

On 18 Jan Lim said that Penang is willing to buy the project with 2 conditions:

1. UDA had to pay the loan of rm3.6 millions made to the project.

2. UDA had to pay rm 10.6 millions for the land premium.

On the explanation by Koh, Lim was reported saying that Koh blame everybody except God and himself on the failure of the jerejak projek, he pointed that Bali and Phuket were still doing well despite the financial crisis. He was also asking why the land title was given when the premium was not fully paid.

We are waiting for the next reply or actions on the failed Jerejak Project. However the $30 million had been in the drain.

failed jerejak project

The Chief Minister of Penang exposed the failed jerejak project.

The jerejakk project was mounted by the previous BN government of Penang in 2004. It was a join venture with 51% stake by Uda Corporation, a federal agency and Penang Development Corpration.

What seem to be odd to me, even though UDA was supposed to hold 51% stake, but the investment seem to come from Penang.

Malaysia insider also carry the same news on the failed jerejak project.

It is hard to imagine the extend of the failure with getting the full picture. Was the project abondoned, for the changes in the tourist potential. Is this the case where the cash for the project was consumed and the building did not take shape, or is it the case of charging excessively for the materials and part, like the rm11,000 was charged for a normal computer in Malaysian Parliament?.

We do not know the real situation.

The story from star is given below..

By ZUHRIN AZAM AHMAD
zuhrinazam@thestar.com.my | Jan 19, 2011

‘Explain Jerejak’s RM30mil loss’

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wants the Auditor-General to compile a special report on the Pulau Jerejak island resort development’s alleged losses of RM30mil.

PAC chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the committee felt that the matter was urgent as it involved public money.

“PAC would like to know more about the project and the alleged losses but we are in the dark.

“We cannot simply probe the matter without any financial report and the Auditor-General is the best authority to provide it,” he told newsmen after chairing the PAC meeting at Parliament House here yesterday.

Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang and senior officials from the Higher Education Ministry were present at the inquiry.

Azmi said he had spoken to Ambrin on the need for the committee to have a financial report before it could initiate any inquiry.

“I have talked about this unofficially with the Auditor-General and will decide whether to make it an official request at the committee’s meeting tomorrow.

The project was a joint-venture between the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and UDA Holdings Berhad to develop an island resort called Tropical Island Resort (TIR) on the former penal code and leper detention island.

UDA holds the controlling 51% stake in TIR while the remaining shares are held by PDC.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government was considering lodging a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on the failed project.

Lim said PDC’s RM15.42mil in TIR and the loan to TIR amounting to RM3.6mil could not be recouped. He also said TIR failed to pay RM10.6mil in land premium to the Penang Land and Mines Department.

Earlier, Azmi chaired an inquiry on the Auditor-General’s report on Politeknik Muadzam Shah in Pekan (Pahang) which took 10 years to complete and incurred a cost over-run of RM110mil. The initial cost of the project was RM219mil.

“The officials from the (Higher Education) ministry could not provide us with much information since the project started a long time ago.

“They are all new officers and did not have any idea on the project but we will continue with the enquiry,” he said.