KL - Singapore Rail Poject

Early this year, Malaysia and Singapore government had announce the interest to establish fast rail link connecting the two cities. The land travel will be cut to 90 minutes only. the project is expected to be completed by 2020 with the estimate cost of RM40bil.

The Malaysian PM is eyeing the investment from Japanese firm in the long term projects. A number of Japanese giant companies had shown interest. The Japanese had progresses well ahead in the rail transportation segment with Shinkansen high speed railway.

Penang Bridge to be opened in Feb 2014

The Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof announced that the second Penang Bridge will be opened on Feb 2014. Currently the bridge is 99.9%  completed and the only outstanding portion is the two toll plazas at Batu Kawan.

One of the toll plaza, at Bandar Cassia Interchange will the biggest tool plaza in Malaysia. It will have 28 toll booths, compared to the current biggest plaza at Sungai Besi with 18 lanes. The tolls complex will be managed by Jambatan kedua Sdn Bhd.

The bridge spans about 24 km with 16.9km over the sea.. 

Collapsed Roof - Universiti Tati Terrengganu

The roof of Chancellor Hall of a university in Terengganu had its roof collapsed. The add up to a list of collapsed building in the rich state.

thestar 4 Dec 2013

The latest was an incident at Kolej Universiti Tati on Monday 2 Dec 2013. Tati is owned by the State of Terengganu, located in Kemaman. It was opened by the PM Tun Mahathir  in 1993 as Terengganu Advanced Technical Institute (TATI). In 1997, it started to offer UTM double degree programs.

This matter was raised in Parliament by Kuala Terengganu MP, Raja Kamarul Bahrin and according to him that this was the third time such incidents had been happening. The company was involved in the Kampong Binjai Kertas Mosque project. 

Penang's Traffic Management Projects

A comprehensive states traffic management projects are being planned by the state government of Penang. The total cost is about rm6.3bil.

The projects involve the following developments...
1. The 12 km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang to be completed by 2018.

2.    The 4.2 km Tun Lim Chong Eu Expressway to Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass to be completed by 2019.

3. The third project is the 4.2km Gurney Drive connecting to the Dr Lim Expressway to be completed by 2022.

4. The biggest of all is the underwater sea tunnel linking Gurney drive to Bagan Adam on the mainland. The project is planned to be completed by 2025.

The Star Nation 17 Oct 2013

Time To Reflect - Malaysian Projects

Sundays have been the time to review and reflect. The pace of time is being slowed down for us to recheck and review, about important things that we, in our urgency to achieve the goals, may have miss.

I was reading to catch up with some of the topics in the weeks paper- it caught my eyes on the topic... " China's Jumbo Jet Hits Snags" . Then the mind almost automatically contrast it with the Malaysian Aerospace projects.

theStar - Business 4 Oct 2013

  China is embarking in a project to build up aircraft manufacturing capability to compete with Boeing and Airbus.

Quick Internet Research of Malaysian Endeavors in the field of aviation/ aerospace reveals the followings:

1. 1993 - The Malaysian Eagle project. - Manufacturing of composite aircraft.
2. 1994 - manufacturing of the German-designed Dornier Seastar CD2 aircraft.
3. 1994 - manufacturing of Swiss-designed Datwyler MD3-160 two-seater aerobatic trainer aircraft.

 Reference ...http://www.mahathir.com/malaysia/speeches/1993/1993-12-07.php

Collapsing Mosques in Terrenganu

Under present government (BN), the buildings in Terrengganu is starting to collapse. The latest are the series of mosques. These are the samples taken from a local paper. It is not known if the actual number is more.

A. May 2013 - Kampung Binjai Kertas mosque - Hulu Terrengganu

the mosque, which cost RM1.7mil, was opened in 2008, to replace an older village mosque.

B. Sept 2013 - Kampong Tebauk, Bukit Tunggal

The Star 30 sept 2013

 The mosque was built in in 2010 at the cost of RM6mil.

C. Oct 2009 - Kampung Batu Puteh in Kertih Kemaman collapse injuring three Indonesia workers.

 ---------------------------------------------------------- The ruling parties of Terrengganu

Shoddy Government Projects

Many may have known Terrengganu as a culturally rich state in Malaysia and many too may know it is a gifted state with rich petroleum field. The opposition will remember the moment when the oil royalty was stopped when the state falls to the opposition.

Now, Malaysia will know Terrengganu as a state with collapsing building, when the government projects under the ruling Barisan National, started to collapse.

MEDICAL SUPPLIES CONTRACTS

The Malaysian Health Ministry is finalizing a 3bil ringgit contract for the supply of medical products to the government hospitals.

The Star 20 Sep 2013

The tender exercise is normally carried out every 3 years. Currently, the ministry appointed another company, Pharmaniaga, as the concessionaire to handle and manage the procurements and the distribution of both the pharmaceutical and the non-pharmaceutical products. Pharmaniaga denied the allegation that the company had reaped huge profit from the exercises, and according to the managing director, Datuk Farshila Emran, the tender exercise was conducted in a "transparent manner".

The previous tender exercise involved RM 1bil. The current exercise included the briefing to 172 vendors, who were interested to participant in the Malaysia medical supplies contracts

Perwaja Steel

Mounting Delays For KLIA 2

Not many Malaysian are aware that KLIA 2 is delayed for 5 times.
These are the supposely completion dates and the delays. The latest target date is Mar 2 , 2014.

- 1 - first target sept 2011
- 2 - Apr 2012
- 3 - Oct 2012
- 4 - May 2013
- 5 - Jun 2013
- 6 May 2, 2014

Based on the track records, it is doubtful that the new target date of May 2014 will be met.

It was reported that the blame is on MAHB since the project is wholly undertaken by the company. However, a lot of the details may not be revealed to the public. Although it is managed by the MAHB, I doubt that the company is allowed to make the salient decisions. Based on the experiences with MAS, when MAS bought the B747 with different versions of engines, a decision where no airline would have made. Decisions were made at the higher levels and beyond the company. We are not privy to the process of short listing and selection of the main contractor. The contractor UEM is not a stranger to the local scene.